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LETTERS , ^ 

,^a^ ^h^ y^. A^^^ /^ 



SCHOOL-CHILDREN; 



m 



on their relation to their teachers, and to one 
another; on their duties as school-children; 
ON the necessity of government in schools ; ON 
the dangers to which school-children are ex- 
posed ; ON the means of improvement in moral 
excellence ; on the nature, object, means, and 

advantages of education \ AND ON THE VALUE OF 

time. 



BY E. C. WINES, 

Author of "Hints on Popular Education," "How shall 
I Govern my School,'' &c. &;c. 



^) 



BOSTON: 

PEN 1 
1839. 



MARSH, CAPEN AND LYON 



'■ ♦ > 



LB/0C^7 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, by 

Marsh, Capen & Lyon, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts; 



3^ ^ 



Printed by William A. Hall & Co. 



DEDICATION 

TO 

MY OWN CHILDREN. 



My Beloved Children^ — 

Though none of you are yet able to read, 
I dedicate this volume to you. There is a 
propriety in doing so, which I will explain. 
Many of these letters were first written to 
you nearly two years ago. I did not then 
intend to have them printed in a book, but 
meant to leave them in manuscript, so that, 
if I should die before you grew up, you 
might still have some advice from your fa- 
ther, when you became old enough to read 
and understand it. I felt then, as I feel now, 
very anxious that, while you are young, you 
should make the best use of your time, and 



IV DEDICATION. 

prepare for the many important duties you 
will have to perform when you become men. 
Knowing how liable I was to die, and thus 
to be forever prevented from giving you those 
lessons which every father desires to give to 
his children, I began the writing of these 
Letters, as I have informed you. I was, 
however, not able to go on with my work at 
that time. 

Since then I have thought that what would 
be useful to you, would be useful to others ; 
I have, therefore, carried out my intention of 
writing the Letters ; but, instead of address- 
ing them to you, I have addressed them to 
all the school-children in the United States. 
They are now printed in a volume, and I 
hope that many children will read them, and 
be profited by the reading. Should God 
spare me, your education will form one of 
the principal occupations of my future years : 
should He see fit to take me away from you 
by death, I now bequeath to you the instruc- 
tions and counsels contained in these Letters, 
as an inheritance of greater worth than gold, 
or lands, or houses. The best return you 



DEDICATION. V 

can make for the labor I have bestowed upon 
them, will be to receive and follow the advice 
I have given in them. 

Accept this dedication in testimony of the 
deep and unalterable affection of 

Your Father. 



1* 



PREFACE 



The following work embodies the 
substance of familiar lectures many- 
times delivered to the author's own 
pupils, while he was principal of the 
Edgehill School. He can bear witness 
to the good effects produced by the 
counsels they embrace, as thus present- 
ed to the youthful mind. Whether 
equal results may be anticipated from 
them in their present form, he cannot 
pretend to predict. It is much easier 
to talk to children, than to write for 
them. 

The author believes that in these 
Letters he has occupied ground hith- 



Vm PREFACE. 

erto untrodden. He trusts that it has 
yielded some fruit, '' pleasant to the 
sight, and good for food ; " and which 
will be found to be not altogether un- 
worthy the acceptance of the public. 
In this hope he gives to the light the 
results of his labor, after expressing his 
sense of obligation for the generous 
reception given to his previous literary 
efforts by a liberal community, 

Boston, January, 1839. 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER I. 



Reasons for writing to school-children— Clueer defini- 
tion of man — Explanation of it — Memory — Imagina- 
tion. ..._.. 9 

LETTER II. 

Building castles in the air — Not useful — Another mode 
of employing the thoughts with regard to the future 
which is useful — Children ought to think of their fu- 
ture responsibilities, and prepare for them. - 14 

LETTER III. 

The same subject continued — Children will have much 
to do when they grow up — First, for the good of man- 
kind — Secondly, for their country— And thirdly, for 
their families, neighbors, &c. &c. — Object of writing 
these letters — Statement of subjects. - - 20 

LETTER IV. 

Importance of pupils' understanding their true relation 
to their teachers— Explanation of this relation — It is 
like that of parent and child— Wherein and why. 27 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER V, 

Watchfulness on the part of teachers — Is their duty — 
Is beneficial to the pupils — How - - 32 

LETTER VL 

Pupils ought to love their teachers — This duty ex- 
plained and enforced — Respect is the second duty of 
school-children — Reasons on which this obligation 
rests. ------ 36 

LETTER VII. 

Obedience the third duty of pupils to teachers — Polite- 
ness — Teachableness. - - - - 42 

LETTER VIII. 

Pupils owe it to their teachers to be frank and ingenu- 
ous with them — Why — The last duty of school-chil- 
dren towards their teachers is co-operation with them 
— Power of children over each other. - - 48 

LETTER IX. 

The interesting relation existing between teachers and 
pupils chiefly for the advantage of the latter — Should 
be so regarded by themselves — Explanation of the 
pupils' relation towards each other — Their inter- 
course should be like that of brothers and sisters. 54 

LETTER X. 

Necessity of government in schools — Should be vigor- 
ous and strict — Advantages of it — Duty of pupils in 
reference to it. - - - - - 59 



CONTENTS. Xl 



LETTER XL 

Dangers to which school-children are exposed enumer- 
ated and explained. - - - - 65 

LETTER XII. 

Means to lae employed by children for self-improvement 
in moral character — Choice of companions. - 76 

LETTER XIII. 

The same subject continued — Why children should 
know by what means they can improve their charac- 
ter — These means stated— Acting from principle. 79 

LETTER XIV. 

Same subject continued— Every child must correct his 
own faults — Means to be employed — 1st, Confession — 
2d, "Watchfulness— 3d, Resistance of temptation. 86 

LETTER XV. 

The same subject continued — Prayer — Self-watchful- 
ness and self-examination. - - - 94 

LETTER XVI. 

Same subject continued— The Bible— Observance of 
the Sabbath. 101 

LETTER XVII. 

Nature of Education — All are educated, but in different 
wa5'^s — Objects of Education — 1st, The cultivation of 
our powers— 2d, The attainment of knowledge— 3d, 
The formation of good habits. - - - 109 



Xll CONTENTS. 

LETTER XVIII. 

Means of Education— Diligence and Study— Obedience 
to teachers and parents— Self-examination — A con- 
scientious discharge of duty — Self-denial — General 
Reading — Writing — Amusements — Study of the Bi- 
ble; 119 

LETTER XIX. 

Advantages of Education — Improvement of Time. 130 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 



LETTER L 



Reasons for writing to school-children — Glncer definition 
of Man — Explanation of it — Memory — Imagination. 



My Young Friends^ — 

1 CALL you friends^ though I have never 
seen you ; and I am going to write many let- 
ters to you. Perhaps you will wonder w?iy 
a stranger should trouble himself so much 
about you. I will tell you why. You will 
not remain always children ; you are fast 
growing up to be men and women. Your 
fathers and mothers will, in a very few years, 
die ; and then you will have to take their 
places. Some of you will be mothers, and 
will have children of your own to take care 
of and to educate. Some of you Avill be 
1 



10 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

lawyers, some doctors, some ministers and 
teachers, some law-makers, some judges and 
governors, and some merchants, farmers, me- 
chanics, &c. Do you not think it impor- 
tant that you should become good men and 
women ? I am sm"e you think so, and that 
you desire to form a good character. There 
are very few children who do not feel that 
they should like to be good when they grow 
up. Now it is to help you in trying to be- 
come good and wise, that I write these letters 
to you. I have been many years a teacher ; 
I have seen a great deal of children ; I have 
learned much about their dispositions, habits, 
and capacities ; and I think I can give you 
some advice, which will be useful to you 
while you are getting your education. 

Many of you, I dare say, have heard some- 
thing about the Greeks, who lived many hun- 
dred years ago. They were a strange people, 
and said a great many queer things. One of 
them said that " Qiian zvas an animal that 
looked behind a7id before.''^ Perhaps you will 
laugh at this, and think that he who said it 
must have been a crazy man ; but he was not 
crazy. He did not mean that men have eyes 
in the back part of their heads. He spoke of 
their minds. He meant that they have 
oinemory^ with which, as with an eye, they 
can look back on what is past ; and that they 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 11 

have imagination^ which, Hke another eye, 
enables them to look forward to what is to 
come. 

That this is so, you all know perfectly 
well. Do you not remember what happened 
yesterday, or last week ? Do you not re- 
tnemher that pleasant visit you made last year 
to your cousins, and what fine sport you had 
with them ? So also you are constantly look- 
ing forward to future events. True you do 
not know what will happen next year, next 
week, or to-morrow. No ! you cannot even 
tell with certainty what a single hour may 
bring forth. You are now well and free from 
pain. In less than an hour you may have an 
arm broken ; you may be taken violently ill ; 
you may be a lifeless corpse ! You know this 
well ; yet you look forward to bright scenes 
and happy days. 

Is it not so ? Do you not expect much 
pleasure on your next holiday, when you will 
be released from the confinement and duties 
of school, and can roam at large through the 
woods and fields, or go to visit some dear 
friend, or to see some interesting show ? II 
you are away from home, at a boarding-school, 
what delight does the near approach of vaca- 
tion give you ! How do your hearts over- 
flow with gladness when your thoughts an- 
ticipate the time that is to give you back to 



12 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

your parents, brothers, and sisters, and all the 
pleasures of home ! How do you count the 
weeks, the days, and the hours, and at last the 
very minutes, that must intervene, before the 
wished-for moment arrives, that is to free 
you from your present restraints, and make 
you perfectly happy ! 

Nor is this all. Some of you already be- 
gin to send your thoughts forward to the time 
when you will become, as the phrase is, " your 
oion master s.^^ None of you expect to die in 
youth ; all are looking forward to old age, or 
at least to mature manhood. And what are 
your anticipations ? What do you expect to 
be ? What do you hope to possess ? Alas ! 
alas ! the seeds of ambition and avarice have 
already taken root in your hearts, and begin 
to shoot their branches upward to the air. 
How many are the day-dreams that float be- 
fore your childish fancy ! Ships freighted 
with rich cargoes, piles of ledgers, the crowd- 
ed warehouse, the splendid dwelling, the ex- 
tensive farm, the costly equipage ; — do not 
some of you look forward to such possessions 
and pleasures as these ? Do you never think 
of the victories that may be in reserve for you 
over rival fellow-students, the fame you may 
acquire at the bar, the eminence to which you 
may rise as statesmen, the renown you may 
gain as orators, the political honors that may 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 



13 



be showered upon yon, the distinction even 
which you may win upon the field of author- 
ship? Such anticipations, high as they seem, 
are no strangers even to the youthful bosom. 
Have you never indulged them ? Do you 
not sometimes, even when your attention 
ought to be wholly occupied with your books, 
detect yourselves in giving a loose to the 
reins of imagination, and awake from some 
pleasing reverie as from a dream ? 

I think you will, many of you, have to an- 
swer these questions in the affirmative. 



1* 



LETTER II. 



Building castles in the air — Not useful — Another mode of 
employing the thoughts with regard lo the future which 
is useful — Children ought to think of their future respon- 
sibilities, and prepare for them. 



My Young- Priejids, — 

" Building castles in the air," is the name 
commonly given to that indulgence of im- 
agination of which I spoke in my last letter. 
It is an indulgence to which most persons, 
and especially those of your age, are not a 
little prone. It is, however, never a profita- 
ble employment, and is often very hurtful. 
Children who think much about how great, 
rich, and happy they will hereafter become, 
waste the time they ought to spend in gain- 
ing knowledge and preparing themselves to 
be useful. Yet, there is a way of employing 
the thoughts with respect to the future, which 
is not only excusable, but worthy of praise. 
It is even your duty to think about the years 
that are to come. Your principal occupations 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 15 

at school have respect to your future lives. Do 
you think you go to school, as you Avould go 
to see a balloon ascension, an illumination, or 
the tricks of a juggler, merely for your present 
amusement ? You know you do not. You 
feel well assured that your parents would not 
be at so much expense to send you to school 
for such a purpose as this. i\o ! You go to 
school for a far better and nobler purpose. It 
is that you may prepare yourselves, by study 
and discipline, to perform, with credit to your- 
selves and advantage to others, those duties 
which God, your country, and the world will 
require of you, when you grow up to be men 
and women. 

You are old enough to begin to think 
about this, and you ought to remember that, 
in a few years, you will have to fill the places 
now occupied by your fathers and mothers. 
You will yourselves, many of you, soon be 
mothers, and how will you govern and edu- 
cate your children, unless you prepare your- 
selves now ? If our present form of govern- 
ment continues, who, fifty years from this time, 
will fill the high ofiice of President of the 
United States ? Some one who is now a 
school-boy. Who, in less time than fifty 
years, will make most of our judges, legis- 
lators, foreign ministers, military and naval 
officers, professional gentlemen, authors, art- 



16 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

ists, teachers, merchants, farmers, and me- 
chanics ? Those who, like you, are now 
subject to all the restraints put upon school- 
children, and engaged in the daily round of 
school duties. What an interest does this 
give to your present occupations ! Can you 
realize the thought without being affected 
by it? 

There is not a school in the land, in which 
there may not be some future governor, judge, 
statesman, or even j^resident of the Union. I 
say not this to point a sentence, or to flatter 
your vanity. No, indeed. My aim is much 
higher. You live in a free republic, where 
every one owes his best services to his coun- 
try ; and where every one ought to be ready 
and willing to serve his country in any way 
that she requires. I want to remind you how 
important may he the post which your coun- 
try will hereafter assign you, and, in doing 
this, to impress upon your minds the great 
lesson that you ought to prepare yourselves 
now, by diligence in study, and by all the 
other means which will be pointed out to 
you, for whatever your future station may be. 

Spring, as you well know, is the seed-time 
of the year. It is then that the husbandman 
ploughs and sows his fields, — waiting ever 
after for the early and the latter rain in their 
season, to cause the seed to sprout and grow, 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 17 

and ripen into fruit. So youth, which is the 
spring-time of Yiie, is the period when the 
seeds of knowledge and virtue must be sown 
in the heart. It is the season of preparation ; 
and if any of you neglect the opportunity 
you now enjoy for becoming wise and good, 
you can never, in after life, however much 
you may exert yourselves, make up for the 
want of present diligence. Esau sold his 
birthright for a mess of pottage, and he 
could never get it back, though he afterwards 
mourned bitterly over his folly. So time 
once wasted can never be recovered. You 
may lament over its loss, like Esau over the 
loss of his birthright ; but your sorrow will 
not bring back the hours you now pass in 
idleness ; nor can all your efforts then gain 
for you that amount of knowledge which is 
at present within your reach. 

Now, there is one thought that I wish to 
call your particular attention to in this matter. 
It is well and very plainly expressed by 
our Saviour, in the two following sentences. 
'' Where much is given, much also will be 
required." '' The servant which knew his 
Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither 
did according to his will, shall be beaten 
with many stripes ; but he that knew not, 
and did commit things worthy of stripes, 
shall be beaten with few stripes ; for, unto 



18 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

whomsoever much is given, of him shall he 
much required ; and to whom men have com- 
mitted much, of him they will ask the more." 
Suppose a gentleman employs three persons 
to trade for him in China. To one he gives 
one thousand dollars, to another ten thousand, 
and to the third twenty thousand. Do you 
think he will expect the first to make as 
much money for him as the second, or the 
second as the third ? There is not a child in 
your school who does not know better than 
that. Well, it is the same in education. 
God will expect and require more of those to 
whom he gives great opportunities for gain- 
ing knowledge, than of others who enjoy less 
means. You have parents who know the 
value of a good education, and are willing 
both to spare your time and to spend money 
in sending you to school. Do you think that 
if you waste your time in idleness and grow 
up in ignorance, you will be no more to 
blame for it, than if you had had no oppor- 
tunity of going to school ? 

Before I finish this letter, I will tell you 
about a family that I have heard of, living in 
one of our western cities. One of the first 
lessons which the father and mother teach 
their children is, that they ought to think 
less of themselves than of others — that they 
should drive out selfishness from their hearts, 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 19 

and cultivate a feeling of benevolence towards 
all men. Hence, nothing is more common 
than to hear the children of that family, the 
younger as well as the older ones, talk 
about " living for their country," " serving 
their country," " being useful to their coun- 
try," &c. Thus they learn to live rather for 
mankind than for themselves. One of them 
is now president of a college, and another is 
among the best and most distinguished of the 
female writers of America. And you, my dear 
children, should think often and a great deal 
about how much good you may hereafter do, 
and try and prepare yourselves to be very use- 
ful to others. You must study the lesson of 
living for others as well as for yourselves. 
Nothing is meaner than selfishness ; nothing 
more noble and generous than to labor for the 
good of your country and of mankind. 



LETTER III. 



The same subject continued — Children will have much to 
do when they grow up — First, for the good of mankind — 
Secondly, for their country — And, thirdly, for their fami- 
lies, neighbors, &c. &c. — Object of writing these letters — 
Statement of subjects. 



My Young Fi'iends, — 

In my last letter I told you that you ought 
to think about what you would have to do 
when you grew up to manhood. In this I 
wish to say something further to you on the 
duties you will then have to perform. 

Do you know what the present state of 
the world is ? You know that in the place 
where you live, though you have the Bible, 
the church, the Sabbath school, and much 
religious instruction, yet there is a great deal 
of wickedness. Half of the people that you 
are acquainted with do not pretend to love 
God, or serve him ; and many of them swear, 
lie, deceive, steal, drink, and do many other 
very wicked things. 

But you live in a Christian land. Much 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 21 

the largest part of the world is not Christian 
even in name ; and the people who live in 
that part know nothing abont the true God, 
or Jesus Christ, or the way of salvation. 
They have, indeed, more gods than you 
could count ; but these are made of wood, or 
stone, or gold, or silver, or some other sense- 
less and lifeless object. Some of them wor- 
ship wicked men, and even beasts, and rep- 
tiles, and monsters of the deep. They think 
they can please their gods by cruelty ; so 
they swing on hooks — they cut their flesh — 
they walk barefoot over rough and stony 
places — they travel hundreds of miles by 
prostrating themselves in such a way, that 
their bodies touch every inch of ground they 
pass over — they throw themselves before the 
wheels of a car, on which a huge idol is 
borne, and are crushed to death ; and, what 
is worse and more cruel than all, they often 
kill their little infants as soon as they are 
born. O, the horrid cruelties that are prac- 
tised by heathen people ! They have no 
schools for little girls, because they think 
that females are not as good as men ; and 
they do not allow them even to eat with 
men ; and they have very few schools for 
boys. They are not only ignorant of the 
true God, and destitute of most other useful 
knowledge, but they are also very wicked j 
'2 



22 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

they lie, steal, rob, and practise all sorts of 
dishonesty and corruption. And then they 
know nothing about anoth-er Avorld, as you 
do, who have the Bible. How unhappy 
these heathen people must be ! Do you not 
pity their condition ? Would you not do 
something to make it better ? God does not 
mean to have the world continue in this state 
always. He will have it filled with the 
knowledge of himself, and all the people in 
it made good and happy. But this great 
■work he will not do by miracle ; he will 
employ men to aid him in it. You are all 
called to be co-workers with God, in improv- 
ing the condition of the heathen world. 
What a liigh honor is thus conferred upon 
you ! How anxious should you be to pre- 
pare yourselves for this duty ! 

But, your duties, when you become men 
and women, will not end with your efforts to 
banish from the world the ignorance, wick- 
edness, and misery which now abound in it. 
You will have many other and very impor- 
tant duties to perform. We live in a free 
country ; we enjoy a republican form of gov- 
ernment. The people govern themselves 
here through the representatives and senators 
they choose and send to Congress. In for- 
mer times, as you have probably learned 
from your histories, all this country belonged 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 23 

to Great Britain. Great Britain was very 
unjust towards our forefathers, and they de- 
termined they would not submit to injustice ; 
so they made war upon her. They said that 
they would form a nation by themselves, 
independent of Great Britain ; that they 
would have a government of their own, and 
be free. But it took them a great while, 
and there was a great deal of fightiug, before 
they gained their freedom and established 
their independence. They had to spend a 
great deal of money, and shed much blood, 
in doing it. At last, however, they succeed- 
ed. Great Britain acknowledged that she 
could not conquer them, and said they should 
have her consent to be free and independent. 
Then those brave men, that had fought the 
battles of the Revolution, met together, and 
formed our present free, wise, and happy 
government. Almost all those men are now 
dead ; but they have left us the government 
they formed, and it is our duty to preserve it, 
and hand it down, as it now is, to our chil- 
dren. It requires a great deal of knowledge, 
wisdom, and goodness, in all our citizens, to 
do this. This duty Avill very soon belong to 
you. Your fathers and mothers will, before 
many years, be sleeping in their graves. 
Now is the time to qualify yourselves for the 
important work that is before you. How 



24 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

diligent you should he ! how carefal to make 
the best use of your time ! how anxious to 
improve every opportunity that your kind 
heavenly Father gives you to lay up knowl- 
edge, and become wise and good ! 

Nor will your duties stop here. Many of 
you will become parents, and have families 
of children around you. How numerous, 
how varied, and how important the duties 
which the parental relation will impose upon 
you ! Every father and mother ought to be 
qualified to be the instructors of their own 
children. But how will you be able to teach 
your little ones, unless you lay in a store of 
knowledge now, while you are at school ? 
Parents ought also to set a good example 
before their children. But, if you ever be- 
come parents, you will not do this, unless 
you form good habits now. " Can the Ethi- 
opian change his skin, or the leopard his 
spots ? Then shall they who have been 
long accustomed to do evil, learn to do welV^ 
Almost every man's character for life is form- 
ed while he is young. There are very few 
great changes of character after the season of 
youth is passed. Bad boys and girls almost 
always make bad men and women. 

Besides the duties already mentioned, you 
will have many others to perform as neigh- 
bors, as friends, and as relatives. All these 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 25 

duties, which now belong to your parents, 
will soon devolve upon you. And now is 
the time to prepare yourselves for them. 
fSurely, you have not a moment to waste. 
You have a great work to do, and you ought 
to be about it in earnest, and with diligence. 
I know you are yet children ; and I have no 
desire to see you suddenly converted into 
men and women. What delights me in chil- 
dren is the simplicity of childhood. I do not 
wish you to lay aside your childish plays and 
gambols. On the contrary, I like to see you 
engage heartily in them, and I like to join in 
them myself. But, then, you should remem- 
ber that you are not always to remain chil- 
dren ; that your sports must, by-and-by, be 
laid aside for the serious business of life ; and 
that, even now, your chief occupations should 
be very different from mere play. 

To help you in preparing yourselves for 
the great duties of life, to aid you in your 
efforts to become imbued with that knowl- 
edge and those virtues which will fit you to 
be useful men and citizens, is the object I 
have in view, in the Letters I now address 
you. I shall speak to you of your relation to 
your teachers and fellow-pupils ; of your du^ 
ties as school-children ; of the necessity of 
government in schools ; of the dangers to 
which you are exposed ; of the means of 
2* 



26 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

self-improvement in moral excellence ; of the 
nature, objects, means, and advantages of 
education ; and of the value of time. I will 
endeavor to bring what I have to say on 
these subjects down to the level of your un- 
derstanding. My only aim is your good. I 
do not write to amuse you. If any child has 
taken up this book merely for amusement, 
having read thus far, he may now shut it, 
and lay it aside. But if any sincerely desire 
to be instructed in what they ought to do in 
school, and aided in doing it, I think I may, 
without arrogance, promise them that, if they 
will not only attentively read what I have 
written, but honestly strive to practise what 
I recommend, they cannot fail to be benefited 
by the counsels they will receive. 



LETTER lY. 



Importance of pupils' understanding their true relation to 
their teacliers — Explanation of this relation — It is like 
that of child to parent — Wherein and why. 



My 'Young Fj'icnds,— 

I AM first to speak to you on your relation 
to your teachers and fellow-pupils. It is 
very important that you should understand 
this subject — especially the relation in which 
you stand to your teachers. If you look 
upon your teachers as hard-hearted task-mas- 
ters, whose sole wish is, to give you as much 
to do as they can, and to deprive you of ev^ery 
innocent enjoyment, rather than as friends, 
who seek your good in all they require and 
forbid, will you obey them, or attend to their 
instructions any farther than you are forced 
to do so ? Will you not rather hate, despise, 
and ridicule them ? Perhaps, while they are 
lifting up their hearts to God for you, or anx- 
iously devising plans for your improvement 
and pleasure, you may be contriving how 



28 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 



you can deceive them, or plotting to weaken 
their authority and influence. Let me deal 
plainly and faithfully with you. Do I not 
speak to some who have often been engaged 
in such unworthy employments ? I know 
whiat school-boys are ; for I could not shut 
my eyes to what I have seen, nor stop my 
ears against what I have heard. But, in 
feeling and acting thus, you wrong both 
your teachers and yourselves. Why not, 
then, cultivate a friendly feeling towards 
them ? Why not treat them with proper 
respect ? Why not manfully determine, that, 
whatever others may do, your constant en- 
deavor shall be to aid your teachers, to 
strengthen their authority, and, by an ami- 
able and obedient temper, to lighten their 
labor, and make the task of teaching you 
pleasant. 

Ignorance of your true relation to your 
teachers is one great cause why schools are 
not more useful than they are — why so little 
that is good, and so much that is bad, is 
learned in them. 

What, then, is the real nature of the rela- 
tion or position in which you stand, with 
respect to your teachers ? A school is very 
much like a family ; it is a family for the 
time being, to all intents and purposes. 
Then the relation of teacher and pupil is the 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 29 

same as that of parent and child. Two 
things, which I will now state, will make 
this, I think, ver]^ plain to you. 

First: All the authority your teachers 
have over you is parental authority. Where 
did they get their power over you ? Did the 
President of the United States, or the Gov- 
ernor of your State, give it to them? Was 
it conferred upon them by any law of Con- 
gress, or of a State Legislature ? Have they 
authority over you merely because they are 
older and know more than you ? Has every 
gentleman you see in the street power to 
command you, and must you obey ? You 
know better than all this. You would laugh 
at any body who should tell you so. But 
you are bound to obey your teachers. This 
you freel3r acknowledge. Why must you 
mind them? Because, when your parents 
sent you to school to them, they gave to 
them a part of their own power and authority 
over you. Your parents get their auihority 
directly from God. God says to you, ^^ Hon- 
or thy father and mother ; " '' Obey your 
parents." He tells your parents that they 
must instruct and govern you, not sparing 
the rod when you have done wrong, and 
deserve punishment. Your parents, having 
this power over you, take you to school, and 
eay to your teacher, ^' Mr. , I bring 



30 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

my son to yon, and place him nnder yonr 
care. I wish yon to teach him, to govern 
him, and to try to make him wise and good. 
I give you entire control over him, while he 
is with you." If your parents do not say 
this in words, they say it by placing you in 
the school. 

Thus it is that your teachers' power and 
authority over you are truly parental, and 
that they themselves are to you in the place 
of parents, while you are under their charge 
and care. 

Secondly : Another thing, which shows 
very clearly that yom- relation to your teach- 
ers is like that to your father and mother, is, 
that the duties of your teachers towards you 
are the same as those of parents to children, 
and your duties towards them are the same 
as those of children to parents. It is the 
duty of your teachers to instruct you, to love 
you, to set you a good example, to watch 
over you, to treat you kindly, to correct your 
faults, and to use their best endeavors to give 
you good habits and manners, and to instil 
into your minds right principles of action. 
All this is just what your parents are bound 
to do for you. And many parents send their 
children to school, merely because they either 
have not time to perform these duties them- 
selves, or because they feel that they are not 
^operly qualified for ti^^m. 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 31 

What are your obligations to your teachers ? 
You are bound to love, respect, and obey 
them ; to conduct yourselves politely towards 
them ; to show a teachable spirit ; to deal 
frankly and truly with them ; and to co-op- 
erate with them in their plans and efforts to 
promote the improvement and good morals of 
their pupils. Are not all these obligations 
duties which you owe to your fathers and 
mothers ? The duties, then, of teachers and 
pupils towards each other are really paternal 
and filial duties. Now, let me ask you, What 
do you think the effect would be, if all the 
members of your school looked upon the 
matter in this light ? If you considered your 
teachers as employing only a father's author- 
ity over you, and felt that your mutual duties 
were those of parents and children, would 
you, could you, behave towards them as you 
sometimes do ? I cannot believe it. You 
would be more gentle, more respectful, more 
obedient, more anxious to please your teach- 
ers, and to aid them in their work. 



LETTER V. 



Watchfulness on the part of Teachers — Is their duty— Is 
beneficial to tte pupils — How. 



My Young Friends, — 

It would not be proper for me to say much 
to you respecting the duties of your teacher. 
But there is one of their duties that I may 
speak of without impropriety ; I mean watch- 
fuhiess, or, as children themselves often call it, 
in contempt, " watching." Boys and girls are 
apt to have very wrong ideas about this. 
They often think meanly of their teachers for 
watching over them, sneering at their faith- 
fulness, and calling them " spies." Now this 
is altogether unjust. It is ungrateful. It is 
unworthy of generous children. 

Your teachers are not at liberty to do as 
they please in this matter. There is an obli- 
gation resting upon them. They have a duty 
to perform ; and that duty is to watch over 
youj and try to find out your faults. Do you 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 33 

suppose they do this jnst to gratify a mean 
curiosity, or for the mere sake of punishing 
you ? I cannot think it possible that ingenu- 
ous children should entertain such a thought. 
Would you like to have your parents cease 
watching over you ? I am sure you would 
not ; and yet you think it both hard and 
mean that your teachers should do the very 
same thing that you desire your parents to do. 
Is not this inconsistent ? Is it not unjust ? 
Is it not ungenerous ? I pray you to consider 
this matter calmly. Think about it ; look into 
it ; examine it ; pray over it ; it is well worth 
your while to do so ; it will repay all the at- 
tention you can give it. 

Vigilance is one of the most important of a 
teacher's duties ; but I can assure you it is 
not a pleasant one. On the contrary, it is 
very unpleasant. It is a duty, therefore, as 
much as possible shunned by unfaithful 
teachers. What they desire is To see as little 
as they can, lest the faults of their pupils 
should give them too much trouble. If, then, 
you ever go to school to a teacher who is not 
vigilant, and who seldom sees or punishes the 
wrong doing of his pupils, you may be assured 
that he does not care much about your im- 
provement, and that he loves his own ease 
more than he does your improvement. 

What object, therefore, can a faithful 
3 



34 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

teacher have in watching over yon hnt your 
own good ? Do yon ask how yon are benefit- 
ed by Ills vigilance ? Listen, and you shall 
be instructed. When you know that your 
teacher is watchful, and that there is hardly 
ever any mischief in the school that he does 
not in some way find out, this knowledge 
will make you watchful over yourselves. 
This is not mere opinion ; it is fact. I ask 
you confidently, if this is not so ? if you do 
not know it to be so from your own experi- 
ence ? If your teacher's eye could always be 
at the same moment in every part of the 
school-room and play-grounds, would there be 
any idleness, any fighting, any profaneness, 
or any other open violation of decency and 
order ? You know full well that there would 
not. This is so much the case that school- 
children themselves can sometimes greatly 
aid their teachers in correcting general faults 
by the appointment of committees of vigilance, 
&c. I have seen a very bad fault entirely 
driven out of a large school in this way. 

Such is the effect of watchfulness even of 
school-boys over each other. And will you 
indulge the thought that it is either hard or 
mean for your teachers to watch over you 
with unceasing vigilance? Let me entreat 
you to banish such a thought forever from 
your bosom. If ever you see this parental 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 



35 



watchfulness opposed by your companions as 
cruelty, or hear it denounced as spying, or 
ridiculed as folly, do not, I beseech you, join 
in such ungrateful and undutiful behavior. 
Have moral courage enough to defend the 
kindness of your teachers, even though all 
besides should laugh at you for what they may 
call your want of spirit. You will respect 
yourselves the more for it, and so will those 
who laugh at you. Do not, as too many 
school-children do, regard your teachers as 
hard masters, rather than as friends, and for 
the time being parents. Do not suppose that 
their great object is to abridge your pleasures 
and cross your wishes, however they may 
sometimes think it necessary to do both. Do 
not feel as if they delighted in marking, re- 
membering, and punishing your faults, though 
duty may sometimes require this at their 
hands. You ought rather to rejoice that they 
have the patience and the faithfulness to deal 
thus with you. In so doing they act towards 
you like a kind but judicious father ; nay, 
like God himself, who often punishes us sore- 
ly, not for his own pleasure, but for our profit. 



LETTER YI. 



Pupils ought to love their teachers— This duty explained 
and enforced — Respect is the second duly of school- 
children — Reasons on which this obligation rests. 



My Young Friends^ — 

Your first duty to your teachers is love. 
Would that I could explain this obligation so 
as to make you feel it, and practise it. There 
is a sense in which you are bound to love 
every body. " Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
as thyself," is the language in which God 
speaks to us all. But this is not the kind of 
love you owe your teachers ; that is an affec- 
tion including gratitude. It is like the love 
you owe to God, to your parents, and to other 
benefactors. When you receive any good 
from another, what rule shonld regulate the 
degree of grateful love you feel towards him ? 
Is it not plainly the degree in which you 
have been benefited by him ? One man saves 
you from drowning, another gives you a pen- 
knife. Which will you love most ? Which 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 



37 



ought you to love most ? The former, un- 
doubtedly. According to this rule, you 
ought to love God more than all other beings. 
Has He not done infinitely more for you than 
the whole creation besides? If people would 
think more about his goodness, they would 
love Him more. 

Next to God, you are most indebted to your 
parents. Can you think of their care, their 
tenderness, their watchfulness, their earnest 
prayers in your behalf, their ten thousand 
acts of parental kindness and love, without 
feeling your hearts warm towards them ? 
Now, apply this rule to your teachers, and 
judge how much you ought to love them. 
After God and your parents, who does so 
much for your welfare, both in time and 
eternity, as a faithful instructor ? If your 
teacher were to make you rich, or get some 
high office for you, how thankful you would 
be to him ! You would be ready to think 
that you could not love him enough for such 
kindness. But, if he were to procure both 
riches and office for you, he would not do 
you half as much good as he now does, by 
training you to knowledge and virtue. Now 
do you not see how strong your obligation to 
love your teacher is ? 

The apostle Paul, in one of his Epistles to 
the Thessalonians, says, '' We beseech you, 
3* 



38 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

brethren, to know them which labor among 
you, and to esteem them very highly in love 
for their work's sake." In this passage he 
tells the Thessalonians what feelings they 
ought to have towards their religious teachers. 
And what does he say ? The very same 
thing I have said to you, viz. that they 
ought to love their teachers a great deal, be- 
cause they labored for their good. Your 
teachers also labor for your good ; they in- 
struct you ; they admonish you ; they watch 
over you ; they correct your faults ; they pray 
for you. Will you not obey the precept of 
St. Paul, or rather the command of God, and 
'' esteem them very highly in love for their 
work's sake ? " Think what their work is. 
Remember how hard they labor for you ; how 
diligently they teach you ; how long they 
bear with you ; how patiently they explain 
what you cannot understand ; and how sin- 
cerely they commend you when you do well, 
and rejoice at every proof you give of ad- 
vancement in knowledge and improvement 
in character. If such thoughts as these are 
familiar to your minds, you cannot feel nor 
act towards your teachers as many, very 
many, school-children do. On the contrary, 
you hearts will warm with grateful love to- 
wards them for their kindness, and you will 
show how much you love them by trying to 
give them as little trouble as possible. 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 39 

Respect is the second duty you owe to 
your teachers. The instructors of youth 
have been held in very different esteem 
among different nations. Among the ancient 
Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, 
they were held in the highest respect, as 
being both the wisest and the most useful of 
men. The Persians always chose, for the 
teachers of their children, old men, who had 
passed all the former period of their lives 
without reproach or dishonor. Juvenal, a 
Roman poet, says of the Roman people, 

" Who pious reference to their tutors paid"; 
As parents honored, and as gods obeyed." 

As PARENTS HONORED. This is the feeling 
that you ought to entertain towards your 
teachers. Are you not bound to "render 
unto all their dues ? " This is the command 
of God. Do you suppose that it means 
merely that you must pay the money that 
you owe ? It means that, certainly ; but it 
means, also, something more. Paul expressly 
says, " Honor to whom honor is due." You 
are, then, just as much bound to respect 
those who are deserving of respect, as you 
are to pay for a quire of paper, after you have 
bought it. The only question is, who are 
deserving of your respect ? It is not all who 



40 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

are rich, and live in fine houses, nor even all 
who fill high offices, that are truly respecta- 
ble. True worth is not in anything external. 
It dwells in the mind ; it is a part of the 
character. All who follow an honest calling 
in an honorable way are respectable in the 
true sense ; and none others are. But even 
these are not all entitled to equal respect. 
Those who are laboring in a profession, 
whose aim is to make men wiser, better, 
and happier, are to be more esteemed than 
those who are engaged in the commoner pur- 
suits of life. What class of men, then, have 
a higher title to respect than those who are 
engaged in the task of training the youth of 
a country to become good hasbands and 
wives, good fathers and mothers, good broth- 
ers and sisters, good men and women ? What 
occupation can be more truly respectable than 
this ? None, surely ; and you cannot help 
seeing it, and admitting that it is your duty 
to respect your teachers. 

But I can show you the same thing, (viz. 
that you are bound to respect your teachers,) 
in a different way. You know, and will not 
deny, that you are under obligation to im- 
prove yourselves, while at school, as much as 
possible, both in mind and character. It is 
only in this way that you can prepare your- 
selves to perform, usefully and well, your 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 41 

future duties. The means for making this 
preparation, which you enjoy in school, are 
the instructions and example of your teachers. 
But these can do you little or no good, unless 
you respect and confide in those who have 
charge of your education. This places your 
duty in the clearest light ; it puts it beyond 
the reach of doubt or cavil. 

I am sure you will acknowledge that I am 
right, in what I have said. Be manly enough, 
then, though you are yet but children, to act 
up to what you allow to be your obligation. 
If any of your companions are mean enough 
to sneer at their teachers, do not degrade 
yourselves by joining in their contempt. Let 
your language to your instructors, your man- 
ner, and whole deportment, be marked with 
respect. In this way, you will show that 
you are yourselves worthy of being respected ; 
you will win the love of your teachers, and 
gain the approbation of all wise and good 
men. You will also please your heavenly 
Father, which is more important than all the 
rest. 



LETTER VII. 



Obedience the third duty of pupils to teachers— Politeness 
— Teachableness. 



My Young Friends,— 

Obedience is your next duty to your 
teachers. God says, " Obey them that have 
the rule over you, and submit yourselves." 
Obedience and submission to all who have 
just authority over you, are here expressly 
commanded. That this command requires 
you to obey magistrates and parents, you 
will not think of denying. But it requires 
you equally to obey your teachers ; for they 
have a real and just authority over you, 
given them by your parents, as I have already 
shown you. Every time, therefore, that you 
disobey your teachers, in any of their just 
requirements, you go contrary to an express 
command of God. You break his law just 
as much as when you disobey your parents. 
Some of you break the rules of your school 
every day, and many times a day. Did you 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 43 

ever think it was wicked to do so ? I be- 
seech you to remember this, and to try and 
form the habit of obedience. Act from prin- 
ciple, in this matter. Then you will be 
prompt in your obedience, and you will obey, 
whether your teachers see you or not. Tar- 
dy obedience is not obedience at all. When 
you receive a command, comply with it in- 
stantly, and with a cheerful air and manner. 
Do not be like the eye-servant — -obedient 
only while you are watched. Remember 
that the eye of God is always on you ; for he 
sees every where, and is every v/here. I 
have seen children, who had been very diso- 
bedient, change their conduct very much, 
when they were convinced, that to disobey 
their teachers was wrong in the sight of God. 
This is the view you ought to take of diso- 
bedience, and this the feeling that you should 
try to cultivate. When you break a good, 
and proper, and wholesome rule of your 
school, you break a law of God. For, 
though God does not say expressly, you 
must not whisper and play in school, he 
says, •' Obey your teachers." Now, if your 
instructors tell you that you must not whis- 
per and play in school, and you still do it, is 
it not plain that you transgress a command 
of God ? Perhaps you have never thought 
so before ; but do you not see it now ? 



44 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

" Obey them, that have the rule over you^ 
and subinit yourselves." If your companious 
entice you to disobey, be firm, be manly, in 
your refusal to consent. Walk not in the 
way with them, for their feet run to evil. 
Such a course may bring upon you the ridi- 
cule of the foolish ; but why should you care ? 
It would gain for you the approbation of God, 
please your parents, secure the love of your 
teachers, win the esteem of your friends, and 
promote the good of your companions, and 
your own happiness. Are not these weighty 
motives? Ought they not to have influence 
with you ? If they do not win you over to 
the ways of obedience, which are truly 
" ways of pleasantness and peace," I know 
of nothing that would have that effect. 

Politeness is another duty you owe your 
teachers. Children are very apt to be rude 
to their instructors. When restrained in 
their wishes, or censured for their miscon- 
duct, they will allow themselves to become 
irritated, and to use impertinent language. 
There is often that in their look, tone, or 
manner, which is insulting, even when they 
do not use insulting words. They take 
pleasure in worrying their teachers, and 
making disturbance in the school, for the 
mere sake of vexing them. These acts, and 
others like them, are offences against good 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 45 

breeding, as well as violations of higher obli- 
gation. You will meet with many children 
of this perverse character. Go not in the 
way with them. I thank God that there are 
also many children quite different from this. 
They love to give pleasure to their teachers. 
They do not frown, mutter, and rebel, when- 
ever they are crossed in their wishes. They 
seem to think that teachers have feelings, as 
well as others. They show their regard for 
their feelings by various little attentions to 
their comforts, by giving them as little trou- 
ble as possible, by an obliging and courteous 
demeanor, and by making them trifling pres- 
ents of fruits, flowers, cakes, candies, <fec. I 
can remember many of my former pupils, 
who were in the constant habit of showing 
their regard for me in this way. Such 
things, though little in themselves, go to the 
heart, and win the love of a teacher. Choose 
such boys for your associates, and imitate 
their example. But, remember that you can- 
not be truly polite without an effort. Real 
politeness is not all in polished manners, 
though many seem to think so. Its seat and 
source are in the heart. Benevolence, good- 
will to others, a desire to promote the happi- 
ness of all with whom we have intercourse, 
— this is the parent of real politeness. You 
cannot, therefore, practise true politeness, 
4 



46 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

either to your teachers or others, without 
cultivating the feeHiigs of kindness and char- 
ity ; without watching over yourselves ; 
without striving to keep under, in your 
breasts, every thing like envy, hatred, ma- 
lignity, and revenge. 

Teachableness is another duty of all 
school-children. This makes you anxious 
to learn, and willing to be taught. It causes 
you to be diligent in studying, and attentive 
at recitation. And do you doubt whether 
this is your duty? No, you do not. You 
know it is. Unless you have a teachable 
spirit, the money which your parents pay for 
sending you to school, is just so much money 
thrown away. " If thou lovest learnings 
thou shalt attain unto much learning," is a 
sentence, which Isocrates, an Athenian school- 
master, had written, in letters of gold, over 
the door of his school-room. Aristotle, speak- 
ing on the same subject, says, '^ Love refuse th 
no labor, and labor obtaineth whatsoever it 
seeketh." If you desire to gain knowledge, 
to form good habits, and to become strong in 
moral principle, you must cherish a teachable 
spirit. Be eager to learn. Let the instruc- 
tions you receive distil into your minds like 
dcAV. Try to add something to your knowl- 
edge every day. Ask yourselves every night, 
'' What have I learned to-day ? " One of the 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 47 

best scholars and most, learned men in this 
country, and the author of many very useful 
books, informed me that he had long been in 
the habit of putting this question to himself, 
each night, before retiring to bed. " Go ye, 
and do likewise." 



LETTJER VIII. 



Pupils owe it to their teachers to be frank and ingenuous 
with them — Why — The last duty of school-children to- 
wards their teachers is co-operation with them — Power 
of children over each other. 



My Young Friends, — 

Ingenuousness, especially in confessing 
your faults, is another duty which you owe 
your instructors. What is one great object 
of education ? Is it not to correct your faults, 
and improve your moral character? You 
ought to accustom yourselves to regard your 
faults as so many diseases, and those who 
have charge of your education as your moral 
physicians. When you are sick, do you try 
to conceal from the doctor the real symptoms 
of your disease ? Do you refuse to let him 
feel your pulse or see your tongue ? Do you 
answer his questions falsely ? No, indeed ; 
you are anxious that he should know the 
whole truth. In this you are wise. But 
lying, idleness, disobedience, obstinacy, pro- 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 49 

faneness, and every other vice is as really a 
disease as the scarlet fever. One is a sickness 
of the body, the other of the mind. It is as 
much more important that the sickness of the 
mind should be healed than the sickness of 
the body, as the former is of more worth than 
the latter. Go, then, to your teachers and 
parents, and use the same frankness in con- 
fessing your faults, that you do with your 
physician in telling him the symptoms of a 
disease. They will be both able and willing 
to tell you what means of amendment will 
be most proper to use in each case. I entreat 
you to pursue this course. You certainly 
would, if you knew how useful it would be 
to you. Those boys in my school who have 
used this ingenuousness with me have im- 
proved rapidly in every virtue. I sincerely 
believe that, if all children would use the 
same freedom with their parents and teachers 
in conversing on their faults, that they do 
with their physicians when speaking about 
their diseases, it would not be many years 
before the world would be very much chang- 
ed for the better. Man would be less passion- 
ate, less deceitful, less selfish, less profane, 
less quarrelsome, less cruel, less every thing 
that is bad. And in proportion as their vices 
diminished, their virtues would increase. 
They would become more gentle, true, kind- 
4* 



50 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

hearted, liberal, and humble. How much 
happier such a change would make them, I 
need not tell you. The youngest child who 
can read, knows it well, without a word of 
explanation. 

The seventh and last of your duties to your 
teachers which I mentioned, is to co-operate 
with them in their plans and efforts to promote 
the improvement, especially the moral im- 
provement, of their pupils. To co-operate, 
means to act together ; to labor jointly with 
others to promote the same end. One main 
object which your teachers have, or should 
have, in view, is to make you good. To co- 
operate with them in this is to strive to pro- 
mote virtue in one another. 

Perhaps you think it is little you can do 
to help forward so great a work. In this 
you are entirely mistaken. You can do a 
great deal. You can do directly even more 
than your teachers. This will surprise you, 
perhaps, but I think I can explain it to you, 
so as to make you see and feel it. You all 
know how much power there is in public 
opinion. Public sentiment governs the world. 
It makes and unmakes laws. And if a law is 
passed which public opinion does not approve, 
the people will not obey it, and it cannot be 
enforced. Public opinion is against stealing. 
No respectable man steals. It is against 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 51 

lying. Who that has any sense of character 
lies openly ? It is getting to be against 
drinking intoxicating liquors. Intemperance 
is every year diminishing. It is against 
gaming. The gambler by profession is an 
outcast from society. Public opinion is on 
the whole in favor of duelling. The laws 
against duelling are not therefore enforced. 
It is in favor of pride, one of the worst of 
vices, if the Bible is to be taken as authority. 
But who thinks less of a man for being proud, 
or more for being humble ? The proud are 
rather admired, and the humble despised. If 
public opinion were as much against profane- 
ness as it is against stealing, swearing would 
disappear from respectable society. If it 
were against Sabbath-breaking, parties of 
pleasure would cease on the Sabbath, and 
rail-road cars and steam-boats would be per- 
mitted to repose from their labors. 

This is a specimen of what public opinion 
does, and can do in society. How strong it 
is in schools you know as well as I. Let a 
thing be unpopular in school, and where is 
the boy or the girl who will have the courage 
to do it ? The public opinion of most schools 
is against " telling tales." I have known 
boys to allow themselves to be beaten, 
scratched, and kicked, till they were bruised 
and bloody, and still to say nothing to the 



53 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

teacher, for fear of being called ''tell-tales.'^ 
If any given act will make the children of the 
school laugh at you, or refuse to speak to you, 
will you do it ? No, indeed. You will be 
very careful to shun it. If you knew that 
every time you told a lie, not one of your 
school-mates would speak to you for a fort- 
night, would you not always speak the truth ? 
If idleness excluded you from the plays of 
your companions, would you not be ever 
diligent ? If impertinence and disobedience 
made your school-mates laugh at you, would 
you not be careful to avoid those faults ? If 
speaking against your teachers were unpopu- 
lar in the school, would not complaints cease ? 
This is enough to show you how much 
power you have over one another, either for 
good or for evil. You can make the public 
opinion of your school just what you please. 
And just according to what the public senti- 
ment of the school is, will be the character 
of most of the scholars. If this is in favor of 
any given vice, the majority of the school 
will be addicted to that vice ; if against it, it 
will be practised by comparatively few. Do 
you remember a passage of Scripture which I 
have already quoted in a former letter, — 
*' Where much is given, much also will be 
required ? " Surely, much is here given — 
much opportunity of doing good to your com- 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 53 

panions. And do you not think that God 
will require you to use your opportunity? 
He will certainly require it of you. You are 
not at liberty to say, '^ I will," or, ''I will 
not," as inclination prompts. You may in- 
deed say it, and act accordingly ; but, mark ! 
if so, you do it at your peril. It will be at 
the peril of displeasing God, that you neglect 
a duty in which the best good of your com- 
panions is so much concerned. 



LETTER IX. 



The interesting relation existing between teachers and pu- 
pils chiefly for the advantage of the latter — Should be so 
regarded by themselves — Explanation of the pupils' rela- 
tion towards each other — Their intercourse should be like 
that of brothers and sisters. 



My Young Friends, — 

The near and interesting relation existing 
between you and your instructors, which I 
have now endeavored to explain to you, is 
principally for your advantage. This is a 
thing not often thought of by school-children. 
Yet it is a fact, and one well worthy of your 
attention. Why does a faithful teacher toil 
so hard, in his care of you? He cannot 
hope to get rich by it. He cannot expect 
much honor from men on account of it. And 
surely it is not to gain knowledge himself. 
The object of his labor is to make you good, 
wise, and useful. These are benefits which 
you cannot calculate. They are not confined 
to this world ; they are not limited by time. 
Eternity is the measure of them. Pause 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 55 

here for a moment, and reflect. — Is this not 
so? I am confident you will say it is. 
How foolish, then, as well as unjust and 
wicked, is the opinion so common among 
school- boys, viz. that their teachers and they 
are on opposite sides ! They seem to think 
that the object of the former is to lay on re- 
strictions, and abridge their liberty, while it 
is their business, by all sorts of means, — 
combination amongst themselves, conceal- 
ment, trick, open falsehood, or open disobe- 
dience, — to baffle their watchfulness, and 
escape their just severity. The children's 
interest and pleasure are supposed to consist 
in contriving to have as little work as they 
can ; the teachers' in giving them as much 
as they can put on. A sad and strange state 
of feeling this ; alike unnatural in its charac- 
ter, and destructive of that confidence and 
harmony which ought ever to exist between 
instructors and their pupils. Your teachers 
are your friends ; far better friends are they 
than those boys who tell you that they are 
your enemies. God said to Adam and Eve, 
" You must not eat of the fruit of the tree of 
knowledge of good and tevil." Satan said, 
'' God is a hard master. It is good fruit. 
You may eat of it without harm." Who 
was the best friend of our first parents, — their 
Creator, or their seducer ? Your teachers are 



56 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 



laboring for your good. They are spending 
their time and strength, that you may lay up 
knowledge, form good characters, and become 
useful men. Why should you oppose them ? 
Why should you thwart them ? Why should 
you vex them? To act thus is to be an 
enemy to yourself. It is as great a piece of 
folly as for a man to set fire to his own house, 
and destroy his own property. Who would 
do this but a fool or a madman ? 

In my fourth letter, I told you that a school 
was a family for the time being, and that 
your teachers and you were to each other as 
parents and children. What, then, is your 
relation to your school-mates ? That of 
brothers and sisters. Jesus has taught us 
that all men are brethren, being the children 
of one common parent — the great God, who 
is full of wisdom, goodness, and love. But 
members of the same family have a nearer 
relation to each other than this ; and their 
relationship, as brothers and sisters, imposes 
upon them peculiar duties. If a school is a 
family, what should be the character of the 
pupils' intercourse with one another ? It 
ought to be marked, 

1. By harmony. ''Behold how good and 
how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell to- 
gether in unity ! " This is the language of 
David, who was familiar with family discord, 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 57 

and knew what a dreadful thing it was. I 
know of no scene more beautiful and delight- 
ful than that of a family " knit together in 
love," and living in a harmony that is seldom 
broken by contentions, envies, and suspicions ,- 
''a family in Avhich contentment, love, gen- 
erosity, mutual forbearance, and a spirit of 
mutual accommodation, are the prominent 
dispositions," and in which each member, 
faithful in the performance of his daily duties, 
strives to promote the happiness of the others, 
rather than to gain any undue advantage for 
himself. There is not a more perfect contrast 
to this picture than a family rent by divisions ; 
a family in which jealousy, selfishness, dis- 
cord, and contention prevail ; a family in 
which every one, intent upon his own pleas- 
ure, cares not for others, and does nothing to 
add to the general enjoyment. How true are 
those words of an inspired apostle, '' Where 
envying and strife is, there is confusion and 
every evil work! " 

Which of these pictures do you like best ? 
Which family would you desire your school 
to be like ? I do not think I give you more 
credit than you deserve, when I express the 
opinion, that you would greatly prefer it 
should be like the former. Well, it will be 
easy for you to make it so. Each one of 
you, for himself, avoid those faults which 
5 



58 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

oppose themselves to the cultivation of a 
peaceful temper^ and nothing more will be 
necessary. What are those faults, which 
thus array themselves against the harmony 
of your school, and of course against your 
happiness ? They are selfishness, pride, jeal- 
ousy, envy, a domineering spirit, teazing, 
ridicule, anger, and revenge. These things 
are forbidden in the word of God. Will you 
not resolve to struggle against them? Let 
them but be banished from your midst, and 
peace would take up her abode with you. 
Your school would present a scene of beauty, 
order, and happiness, which God would look 
down upon with complacency, and which 
would be the delight and admiration of all 
good men. 

2. Your intercourse should be marked by 
gentleness, by a kind regard to each other's 
happiness, by openness and sincerity, and by 
uniform politeness. These are qualities which 
ought ever to belong to the intercourse of 
brothers and sisters. It is equally the duty 
of school-children to possess them, and to let 
them appear in their conduct. If all school- 
children were gentle, peaceful, kind, sincere, 
and polite to one another, hatred of schools, 
which is now so common, would cease, and 
the school-room would become one of the 
pleasantest places in the world. 



LETTER X. 



Necessity of government in schools — Should be vigorous 
and strict — Advantages of it— Duly of pupils in reference 
to it. 



My Young Friends^ — 

I WILL now write you one letter on the 
subject of government in schools. This is 
an important subject, and I ask you to read 
attentively what I shall say on it. Govern- 
ment in schools is necessary, for two reasons. 
The first is, that Avithout it there would be no 
order in school, and of course no study. 
How do you think forty or fifty children, put 
in a room by themselves and set at learning 
their lessons, would conduct themselves ? T3o 
you suppose they would be quiet and studi- 
ous ? You know too well what sort of stuff 
children are made of to think this. What 
would they do then ? They would immedi- 
ately begin to whisper, make signs, throw 
things at each other, laugh, talk, and play all 
sorts of mad pranks; and such a scene of 



60 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

noise and confusion would soon ensue, that, 
even if there were a few who desired to 
study, they would not be able to do it. 

The second reason why government is 
necessary in a school is this : — It promotes 
the growth of certain moral qualities and 
habits, which are very important, viz. a cheer- 
ful submission to just authority, industry, 
self-control, and a regard to the interests and 
happiness of others. Without these qualities 
there can be no real excellence in the charac- 
ter. Moral qualities, like every thing else of 
any value, grow by care and culture. Men 
do not become good, as they sometimes get 
rich, by a favorable iDreeze of fortune. They 
have to labor for it ; they have to struggle 
hard and long against their evil passions and 
principles. Now, suppose a school, if you can 
suppose such an impossibility, where there is 
no government. The children are required 
to obey no rules, to submit to no authority, 
to respect no superior. Could they learn, in 
such a place, to be good citizens, to bow to 
the laws of their country, and reverence the 
authority of the state ? Gould they acquire 
the habit of submission and obedience to any 
rightful rule ? A child can answer this 
question. 

In a school where there was no government, 
the pupils would do nothing. Or if they did 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 61 

anything, it would be by fits and starts. 
There would be no hahit of work. They 
would not become industrious. And if a boy 
grows up in idleness and hatred of work, do 
you think that industry will come to him all 
at once, and enrol itself among his virtues ? 
No, verily ; he would probably be a stranger 
to it through life. His idle habits would 
stick fast to him, and he would be a drone 
in society. 

A child who is not governed by others, 
will not be likely to govern himself. Thus, 
the want of government in a school would 
prevent the pupils of that school from acquir- 
ing self-control, a mastery over themselves, — 
one of the most valuable of qualities, one of 
the most eminent of virtues. 

In a school without government, every one 
would look mainly to himself. There would 
be an eagerness for personal advantage, a 
scramble for the superiority, and a general 
disregard, in all, of the feelings, interests, 
wishes, and pleasures of others. Selfishness 
would grow unchecked, till it exhausted the 
soil of the heart, leaving no nourishment there 
for a single virtue. But, when children are 
well governed, they are taught and habitua- 
ted to give up something to the general good, 
to respect the rights of others, to think not 
alone of their own interests, but to seek the 
5* 



62 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

welfare and the hapjiiness of their companions 
as well as of themselves. 

Thus you see what excellent effects result 
from the establishment of government in your 
school. It enables you to study and learn ; 
it gives you a habit of obeying just laws and 
submitting to rightful authority, and thus pre- 
pares you to be good citizens ; it makes you 
industrious ; it gives you command over your- 
selves ; and it makes you disinterested and 
benevolent. 

Whatever shows that there should be gov- 
ernment in schools at all, shows that it should 
be vigorous and strict. Most of the evils 
which would flow from the absence of all 
government, would, with equal certainty, 
though perhaps in a less degree, flow from a 
weak and inefficient administration of govern- 
ment. 

Now, what follows from all this ? Two 
things very clearly. First, that it is your 
interest to uphold and defend the government 
of your own school ; and, secondly, that it is 
your duty to do so. Who are most benefited 
by the maintenance of a wise and efficient 
government in your school — your teachers, or 
yourselves ? After what has been said above, 
you can be at no loss in answering this ques- 
tion. Perhaps you think it is not so clear 
how you are under obligation to lend it your 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 63 

support. I think that I can make this plain 
to you. You admit that it is your duty to do 
good unto all men as you have opportunity. 
This is the express command of God. Now, 
I ask you to read over this letter slowly and 
attentively, and then to say whether you 
cannot do much good to your companions by 
giving your influence to uphold government 
in your school. But it is your duty to seek 
their good in every way you can. God re- 
quires this of you. 

Now, let me entreat you to resolve, before 
you proceed further in these letters, that you 
will do as I recommend. Perhaps you will 
ask how you can do an^^thing to aid your 
teacher in governing his school. You can 
assist him in various ways. First of all, be 
very obedient yourself to all his commands, 
and very punctual in doing all that he requires 
of you. That will be a great help to him. 
Choose obedient and orderly children for your 
associates. Let those who are disobedient, 
turbulent, and rebellious, see that you do not 
approve of their conduct. If these sometimes 
find fault with the just severity of the teacher 
in punishing, and call it cruelty, tyranny, 
oppression, &c., have the courage to defend 
both him and his conduct openly. If ever 
you are present when bad boys are plotting 
how they can worry their kind instructor, or 



64 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

break his rules without being found out, — 
oppose their wicked schemes with all your 
might. They may not flatter you as much 
for this as if you joined them, but they will 
think more of you in their heart. In these 
and other ways, you can strengthen your 
teacher's authority, and make it easier and 
pleasanter for him both to govern and instruct 
you. And surely it must be a delightful 
reflection to every good child, to think that 
he is both aiding his teacher and benefiting 
his fellow-pupils at the same time. 



LETTER XL 



Dangers to which school-children are exposed, enumerated 
and explained. 



My Young Friends^-— 

I AM now going to speak to you about the 
dangers you are exposed to while young, and 
especially while you are at school. 

A great many years ago, while this country 
belonged to Great Britain, there was a certain 
British General sent over by his king to fight 
against the Lidians. He never had fought 
with Lidians before, and did not know their 
manner of fighting. He had in his army 
some British soldiers, and some American. 
They halted one night, and were so near the 
Indians that they expected to meet them the 
next day. There was a young American 
officer in the camp, who had often fought 
with the Indians, and knew all about them. 
He went to the British General in the evening, 
and said to him, '' General, the Indians fight 



66 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

very differently from regular soldiers. They 
have a way of their own. They do not 
come out openly and meet their enemies. 
They hide themselves among bushes, behind 
trees, and in high grass, where they can shoot 
without being seen. iXow, I think the best 
plan would be to send some of your men on 
before the rest, to find out their hiding-places, 
and let you know, so that they may not take 
us by surprise. If you do not do this, very 
likely they will fall upon us suddenly, and 
cut off almost the whole army." The Brit- 
ish Genera] ought to have thanked the young 
American for his advice, but he was too proud. 
He thought he knew better. So he got angry 
with him, and asked him if he thought such 
an upstart as he could teach a British General 
his duty ? The next day it happened just as 
the young officer had said. The English 
troops were attacked suddenly, defeated, and 
cut to pieces. Braddock himself, for that 
was the name of the British General, received 
a wound, of which he soon after died. His 
American adviser afterwards became the great 
and good and illustrious Washington, the 
Father of his Country, the idol of his coun- 
trymen, and the defender of liberty ; a Hero 
and a Patriot at the same time. 

Children, you blame the folly of the Gen- 
eral who would not be advised by one who 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 67 

knew better than himself the dangers of 
Indian warfare. Take care that, in condemn- 
ing him, you do not also condemn yourselves. 
You are exposed to greater dangers than any 
General ever encountered in his fiercest bat- 
tles. The worst danger of a soldier is that 
of being killed. But that cannot hurt his 
character, or injure his morals. The dangers 
to which you are exposed are very different 
from that ; and unless you struggle hard 
against them and overcome them, worse 
consequences, far worse, than those which 
happened to the British warrior, will befall 
you. If, then, you are faithfully warned 
of these dangers, if you have them clear- 
ly pointed out to you, and still take no 
means to shun them, 1 leave you to judge for 
yourselves whether your conduct is not 
more foolish than that of General Braddock. 
Some of these dangers I will now proceed 
to enumerate. 

1. The bent, bias, tendency, or inclina- 
tion of your hearts to evil is a great source 
of danger to you. Many children are much 
quicker at learning what is wrong than 
what is right, and more readily imitate 
evil examples than good ones. Do you need 
to be told this ? Have you not seen it your- 
selves ? Have you not observed, over and 
over again, how much more easily and rap- 



68 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

id]y boys learn to fight, swear, and lie, than 
to be kind, humble, and forgiving. A bad 
boy, going into a large school, would do 
a great deal of mischief, and lead many of 
his companions away from virtue ; a good 
boy, going into the same school, would be 
much more likely to be made bad himself 
than to lead others to goodness. Do you not 
think so ? If you have been long in school, 
and will speak honestly, you will say. Yes. 
This can only be because the hearts of many 
are more inclined to evil than to good. How 
much are you endangered by this fact ! 
Knowing it, how anxious should you be to 
be led into the right way, how willing to 
receive advice and instruction from your 
teachers, and how careful to pursue it when 
given ! 



'•' I know the right, and I approve it too ; 
I know the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue," 



is a true description of most persons. Take 
care that it does not apply to you. 

2. Your principles are not yet firm ; you 
are apt to be governed by present feelings ; 
you do not see clearly the distant conse- 
quences of your actions ; you are influenced 
more by what is immediate than by what is 
far oif, by what you see than by what you 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 69 

faintly fear. This is a very unfavorable cir- 
cumstance. It is a great source of danger. 
It has proved the ruin of thousands situated 
just as you now are. If you do not learn to act 
from principle now, you probably never will 
have any settled principles of action. If you 
do not accustom yourselves to put a bridle 
upon your feelings, and to think what will 
be the consequence many years hence of 
what you do now, your virtue will always be 
weak, and liable to be overcome by tempta- 
tion. Look at Moses. He might have been 
king of Egypt. He might have lived in all 
the splendor and luxury of royalty. But he 
ran away from that which most others would 
have sought with eagerness. He chose rather 
to become a shepherd boy, to be a slave, and 
even to ^' suffer affliction with the people of 
God," than to sit upon the throne of the Pha- 
raohs. Did he not act very foolishly ? None 
but an infidel will say that he did. But he 
certainly acted very differently from what 
most others would have done. And why? 
Because he thought less about the present 
world than the world to come. '' He had 
respect unto the recompense of reward." 

3. Your third danger is that of being cor- 
rupted by the example and conversation of 
wicked school-mates. Alas ! there is no 
school entirely free from bad boys. All have 
6 



70 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

more or less of such children among their mem- 
bers. These boys lie, swear, steal, fight, call 
names, teaze their companions, use indecent 
language, practise cruelty to animals, have no 
love for learning, and of course do not study, 
and are disrespectful and disobedient to their 
teachers. They go even further than this. 
They not only despise their teachers in their 
hearts and treat them very rudely, but they 
make fun of them to their schoolmates. 
They use their influence to form combina- 
tions against them. They devise tricks to 
play off upon them. They set on foot 
schemes of mischief. They are not only 
disobedient, but they disobey by rule. They 
are bad deliberately. Their wickedness is 
systematic. Is it not so ? Have you no 
originals of this picture in your school ? Is 
there not at least one of your schoolmates, to 
whom this description applies exactly ? Are 
not you yourself guilty in some of these 
respects ? If you are not now, you are in 
great danger of becoming so. You Avill be 
hurt by what you see and hear, if you do not 
set your face against it like a flint. You can- 
not behold evil examples and listen to wicked 
conversation every day, and many times in a 
day, without being injured by it, unless you 
strive against it, and seek aid from your 
Heavenly Father, to enable you to resist the 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 71 

malign influence, " Evil communications 
corrupt good manners," is a declaration of 
the Bible ; and all history shows its truth. 
See that you do not find it out by your own 
sad experience. 

4. You are not only exposed to be led 
astray and corrupted by the examples which 
you see, but you will sometimes be directly 
invited and urged to take part in some plot 
against your teachers, to join some combina- 
tion formed to oppose them, or to unite in 
some scheme of mischief or other. Here is 
a great source of danger to all school-children. 
On this point the advice of the wise Solomon 
to his son is very proper for you. " If sin- 
ners entice thee,' consent thou not. Go not 
in the way with them." This is your only 
safe course. If you yield, you may be ru- 
ined. It would be no more than what has 
happened to thousands of others. Have you 
never seen it yourselves? I have, many, very 
many times. When once you have taken the 
first step in open wickedness, the second will 
cost you much less, the third will be still 
easier, and so on, till very likely you will 
become a ring leader in all that is bad. How 
careful, then, should you be not to begin ! 
You must determine that you will follow the 
wise advice of the wisest of men. And you 
must not only determine to do this, but you 



72 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

must persevere in your resolution. If you 
sincerely desire and really try to resist temp- 
tation, God will help you to overcome it. He 
has promised that He will, and He cannot lie. 
5. There is more or less emulation, or 
rivalry, among the pupils of every school. 
Emulation (as the word is commonly used) 
is a desire to excel others for the pleasure of 
being superior to them. A child can easily 
see that this is not a very high or worthy 
motive to action ; yet it is very prevalent 
in schools, and often produces very bad ef- 
fects. Those who indulge this feeling and 
succeed in gratifying it, almost always be- 
come selfish, vain, and unamiable. These 
are certainly very bad qualities, and such as 
you ought, by all means, to shun. There are 
far higher and better principles of action than 
emulation. Knowledge in itself is pleasant 
to those Avho love it. Study will prepare you 
to be useful when you grow up to manhood. 
Diligence in learning will please your parents, 
and gratify your teachers. Time, and health, 
and the opportunity of education are talents 
committed to you l3y God. He requires you 
to improve them, and to become co-workers 
with Him in making men better and happier. 
If you use them aright, you will gain his 
approbation ; if you abuse them, you will 
incur his displeasure. Is it not much more 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 73 

worthy of you to be diligent in your studies 
from such motiveSj than just because you de- 
sire to be at the head of your class, and de- 
light to see a long row below you ? 1 am 
not afraid to leave you to answer this question 
for me ; you know it is more worthy of you. 
Act up then to your knowledge. Be men, 
though you are but children. 

6. Some of you are in boarding-schools. 
In that case, all the dangers I have already 
mentioned are increased ; and there is one 
other added to them that I must say a word 
or two about. If you are long away from 
home, you are in danger of losing some por- 
tion of your affection and respect for your 
parents. Your father and mother may not 
think it best to spend much money on your 
dress, or to give you a large allowance of cash 
for pocket-money. They act from principle 
in this matter. What they do is done for 
your good. They love you, and seek your 
improvement in what they do. The j)arents 
of some of your schoolmates may act differ- 
ently. They may give their children many 
and expensive clothes. They may lavish 
pocket-money upon them. They may grati- 
fy every wish of their hearts. Children thus 
indulged will be very apt to boast of the 
liberality of their parents, and to call yours 
stingy and mean. At first, if you have any 



74 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

generosity in your nature, you will resent and 
repel such a charge. Afterwards you may 
begin to think that it would be a fine thing 
if you too had every thing you wanted. 
Then will come hard thoughts and feelings to- 
wards your parents, and you will say to your- 
self, ^' Why could they not give me as much 
money and as fine clothes as Charles John- 
son^ or Jane Lovell has ? Their parents are 
very kind to them, and they make me feel 
ashamed when they laugh at mine.^^ There 
is no fancy in this. It is a true history of 
what has happened a hundred times. I have 
heard of a little girl, who went to a fashion- 
able school in one of our cities. Her com- 
panions laughed at her for wearing a merino 
frock and thick shoes in the winter. Some 
of them went to visit her at her father's 
house. They made fun of her parents, and 
tried to make her think meanly of them, 
because the parlor floors had not Brussels car- 
pets on them, and there were no lustres on the 
mantel-piece. Now, my dear children, do 
not suffer yourselves to be influenced by such 
low and paltry motives. Remember the love 
your parents bear you ; remember that they 
know much better than you do what is for 
your good ; spurn from you those who would 
persuade you otherwise ; think, what is un- 
doubtedly true, that they have good and snf- 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 75 

ficient reasons for what they «do ; and cherish 
towards them continually that deep reverence 
and affection which every child owes to the 
authors of his being. 



LETTER XII. 



Means to be employed by children for self-improvement in 
moral character — Choice of companions. 



My Young Friends, — 

I COME now to one of the most important, 
perhaps the most important of all the subjects 
embraced in these letters. It is the means 
to be employed by yourselves for improving 
your characters, for growing in moral excel- 
lence, for becoming truly good when you 
grow up to manhood. If you will do what 
you will admit that Gen. Braddock ought to 
have done in reference to the advice of Col. 
Washington, — that is, if you will follow the 
counsels I shall now give you, you will over- 
come all the dangers mentioned in my last 
letter, and all others to which you may be 
exposed. And not only that, but you will be 
sure to become good and respectable and use- 
ful men and women in society. 

1. Be carefulin choosing your companions. 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 77 

We are all greatly influenced by those whom 
we associate with continually. You do not, 
perhaps, now, at least I hope you do not, use 
profane language. Suppose that your father 
should hereafter let you go and spend your 
evenings in a bar-room, where you would hear 
swearing every minute. Do you think it 
would be long before you would learn, to 
swear ? If you do, I can tell you that you 
are mistaken. I have myself seen many sad 
examples of this kind. On the other hand, if 
you are always with those who reverence God 
and do not take his name in vain, you will 
have the greatest horror of swearing ; and if 
ever, in a sudden fit of anger, you use an oath, 
the thought of its wickedness will instantly 
make you tremble, and fill your mind with 
sadness. So much, indeed, are we influenced 
in our characters by our intimate associates, 
that, if a man will tell you what kind of 
company he prefers, you may know at once 
what sort of a man he is. If he likes best to 
be with gamblers, he is given to gaming him- 
self. If he chooses the company of those who 
drink and swear, and carouse, he is one of 
them, and like them. If he prefers the society 
of literary men, he is himself devoted to 
books. If the intercourse and conversation 
of the pious please him most, he is a man of 
piety. The same is true of children. As 



7S LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

your chosen companions are, so will you be 
yourselves. How careful, then, ought you to 
be in choosing your intimate associates ! 
There are, no doubt, some bad children in 
your school, whose influence over you, so far 
as you allow them to have any, is hurtful. 
But there are others, habitually correct in 
their deportment ; obedient, respectful, affec- 
tionate, gentle, polite, kind, even to the brute 
creation, and diligent in learning. Shun the 
former resolutely ; do not suffer yourselves to 
be enticed into intimacy with them; but 
make the latter your bosom friends, your 
chosen companions. Take the advice of a 
sincere friend in this matter, and you will 
reap the benefit of it, not only now, but many 
years hence, and tPirough the whole of your 
lives ; perhaps even beyond the grave. 



LETTER XIII. 



The same subject continued — Why children shouhl know 
by what means they can improve their character — These 
means stated — Acting from principle. 



My Yoimg Friends^ — ■ 

I CONTINUE in this letter the subject begun 
in my last, viz. the means to be employed 
by you for forming a good character. This 
is a subject of very great importance, and it 
concerns you much to be set right respecting 
it. I will tell you why : First, because you 
cannot help forming a character of some kind, 
good or bad, even if you were so foolish as to 
desire it. In the second place, you are be- 
coming better or worse, more virtuous or 
vicious, every day ; there is a constant growth 
of character, of one sort or another, in every 
one of you. Thirdly, if you ever form good 
habits and establish a good character, it must 
be through your own exertions ; no one else, 
not even your best friend, your father or 
mother, can do it for you. Fourthly, you 



80 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

can become good men and women, if you 
desire and strive for it. And, finally, it de- 
pends entirely upon the character you form in 
childhood and youth, whether you are to be 
respected and useful in after life, or the re- 
verse. This view is confirmed by the ex- 
press declaration of God's word. It is there 
said, " a good name is rather to be chosen 
than great riches." 

Now, tell me whether it is not important 
that you should know how to improve your- 
selves in moral excellence, and to become 
better as you grow older ? I have already 
showed you how much your feelings, habits, 
and opinions are influenced by your compan- 
ions, how careful you ought to be in choosing 
them, and how greatly it will aid you in 
forming a good character yourselves, to asso- 
ciate chiefly with virtuous children. But 
there are many other means of growing in 
excellence, and of laying deep and firm the 
foundations of an honorable and virtuous 
character, every one of which you ought faith- 
fully to employ. These are — acting always 
from principle ; a resolute determination to 
search out and correct your own faults ; 
prayer ; self-watchfulness and self-examina- 
tion ; a diligent study of the Bible ; a proper 
observance of the Sabbath ; and giving heed 
to the counsels of your parents and other in- 
structors. 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN, 81 

To form a good character, then, and make 
virtue a habit, you must, in the second place, 
accustom yourselves even in childhood, to act 
from principle. I presume that you all know 
what it is to act from principle. A stranger 
comes into your school-room. All the chil- 
dren are busy at their lessons ; not one is idle, 
or behaving himself improperly. The mas- 
ter is looking at them. By and by he is called 
out of the room. Half the scholars continue 
at their studies, as before ; the rest fling their 
books aside, and begin to talk, play, and 
laugh. Have you any difficulty in deciding 
which portion studied from principle, and 
which from a mere fear of punishment ? As 
little are you troubled to know which are the 
more truly worthy, excellent, and respectable. 
The youngest child in your school will tell 
you it is those who studied as well when 
the teacher was absent as when he was 
present. To act from principle, then, is to do 
right because it is right, and to shun wrong 
because it is wrong. It is to be influenced 
by the love of goodness in the one case, and 
the hatred of vice in the other. Such a mo- 
tive is worthy of you as rational and immortal 
creatures ; all others are worthy only of the 
brutes that perish. 

You can never attain to a high degree of 
virtue without fixed principles of action. I 
7 



82 LETTERS TO BCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

mean by this, that you must form for your- 
selves certain rules or resolutions to guide 
you in what you do. All who have ever 
become greatly good, or been of much use in 
the world, have had such rules, and faithfully 
lived up to them. In reading the biographies 
of good men and women, you will be struck 
with this fact. President Edwards made 
seventy resolutions, and wrote them down on 
paper, and used to read them over very often, 
that he might have them always fresh in his 
memory. To these resolutions he was not a 
little indebted for that high moral excellence 
for which he became so remarkable. I have 
known some school-boys who have adopted 
several of the same resolutions, and with a 
very happy effect. Perhaps you would like 
to hear what some of these resolves were. 
Among other things, President Edwards re- 
solved to do whatever he thought to be his 
duty^ and most for the good of mankind in 
general, whatever difficulties he met with ; 
he resolved never to lose one moment of time, 
but to improve it in the most profitable way 
he possibly could ; never to do anything 
which he would be afraid to do if it were 
the last hour of his life ; never to do anything 
which, if he saw in another, he should con- 
sider a just cause for despising him ; in narra- 
tions, never to speak anything but the pure 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 83 

and simple truth ; and never to allow the 
least measure of fretting or uneasiness at his 
father or mother. 

This was indeed acting from principle — 
principle of the highest and best kind. You 
will, perhaps, say that Edwards was a man, 
and you are but children. True ; but he 
was once a boy, and he acted from principle 
even then. If he had not done so, he never 
would have become the man that he after- 
wards was. The whole of his seventy reso- 
lutions were formed before he was twenty 
years old, and many of them a good while 
before that time. You remember the story 
of Washington and his hatchet, and how he 
told th« truth against himself, though he ex- 

o JO 

pected that his own punishment would be the 
immediate consequence. You think, perhaps, 
that Washington and Edwards were very 
uncommon children, and that they are, there- 
fore, no pattern for you. They were uncom- 
mon children, but you may become as good 
as they, if you will but follow their example. 
Professor Stowe relates the following anec- 
dote : — While in Prussia, he visited a certain 
institution, where great pains were taken to 
teach the children to act right from principle. 
One boy built a little house for himself, and 
used nails that he had stolen from the master. 
When the other boys found it out, they all 



84 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

joined together, and pulled the house down, 
and compelled the owner to restore the nails 
to the master. I have myself known several 
schools, where the teacher could leave his 
scholars for half an hour, with the certainty 
that they would study as diligently, and be- 
have as properly, as if he were in the room 
with them. Would this be the case in the 
school to which you belong ? Probably not. 
But it ought to be so in every school ; and it 
would be so, if all school-children acted al- 
ways from principle. 

Perhaps you would be glad to have me 
mention some of those principles of action, 
which it would be proper and desirable that 
you should adopt, for the regulation of your 
conduct. Every youth, and even every child 
who is old enough to go to school, ought 
solemnly to resolve to speak the truth always, 
and at all hazards ; to read daily a portion of 
the Holy Scriptures ; daily to offer up prayer 
to God in secret ; to abstain from taking the 
name of God in vain, and from breaking his 
Sabbath ; never to speak ill of any one in his 
absence ; to be obedient to parents and teach- 
ers ; to practise universal kindness ; to shun 
wicked companions ; to avoid quarrels ; to 
govern the temper ; and to act habitually 
from the desire of pleasing God. If you do 
these things, your virtue will become stronger 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 85 

every day, and habits of goodness will grad- 
ually be formed, which will remain with you 
through life, gaining for you the respect and 
esteem of all good men, and fitting you both 
to enjoy happiness yourselves, and to be use- 
ful to others. Will you not try it ? I hope 
that many of you will. It will make you 
happier as well as better. And how much 
pleasure it would give to your parents, teach- 
ers, and friends ! 



LETTER XIV. 



Same subject continued— Every child must correct his own 
faults— Means to be employed — 1st, Confession — 2d, 
Watchfulness— 3d, Resistance of temptation. 



My Young Friends, — 

The Bible says, that ''no man liveth and 
sinneth not." There is no human being 
who is entirely free from faults. Even the 
apostle Paul declares, that when he would do 
good, evil was present with him ; that the 
good he desired to do he did not, and the 
evil he would not do, that he did. If the 
best of men sometimes do wrong, how much 
more liable are you, young and weak as you 
are, to fall into improper practices, and to 
contract bad habits ! Not one of you is with- 
out faults of some kind. Now, if you desire, 
as I hope you do, to improve your moral 
character, if you wish to form correct habits, 
and become good men and women, you must 
diligently seek out your faults, and set your- 
selves resolutely to correct them. No one 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 8T 

can do this work for you. You must do it 
each for himself, or it will remain undone. 
Some children seem to think that if ever they 
become good, they must be made so by their 
parents, or minister, or teacher. You cannot 
make a greater mistake than this. All that 
others can do for you is to point out the way, 
and then you must walk in it : they can tell 
you what you ought to do, but you must do 
it yourselves. 

Some of the more common faults of child- 
hood are selfishness, lying, profaneness, dis- 
obedience, irritability, anger, impertinence, 
pride, obstinacy, and indolence. Almost ev- 
ery child has some ''besetting sin" — some 
fault which he more frequently commits, 
some bad habit to which he is more addicted, 
than another. One who has no selfishness, 
will swear ; another, who would shudder at 
an oath, does not hesitate to lie ; while a 
third, who may be very irritable, is neither 
selfish, deceitful, or profane. Your first busi- 
ness is to find out what your chief faults are ; 
and that you can always do without difficul- 
ty. These you must then learn to regard as 
your worst enemies ; and you must wage a 
war of extermination upon them. You must 
either conquer them, or they will conquer you. 

Mr. Jacob Abbott, in a work called the 
Young Christian, has given such excellent 



88 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

directions respecting the correction of faults, 
that, if I were sure you would read what he 
has written, I would not say a word upon the 
subject. As it is, I shall do little more than 
repeat the substance of what he has said. It 
will be of no use for you to read what I shall 
say on this subject, unless you put it in prac- 
tice — unless you try to correct your faults by 
employing the means pointed out. I hope 
that many who read this book will try. Let 
me affectionately urge you to do so. 

There are three steps to be taken in the 
correction of your faults. The first is confes- 
sion ; the second, watchfulness ; and the 
third, avoiding those great temptations which 
you know to be too strong for you to resist, 
and meeting the small ones with a determi- 
nation, by God's blessing, to overcome them. 
Suppose you are of an irritable temper ; that 
is, you are very apt to get angry ; and you 
sincerely desire to cure yourself of that wick- 
ed habit. The first thing you must do is to 
tell some one frankly all about your fault. 
That, you think, is very hard. Your great 
desire is, perhaps, to conceal, as much as pos- 
sible, what you do that is wrong. If this is 
the way you feel, nothing that I can say, or 
any one else, will do you any good. You 
must wish to become better, or you never 
will improve. However hard it may be for 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 89 

you to confess, you must be willing to do it. 
And, after all, the hardest part is to make up 
your mind to it. But others have done it 
before you. Many of my pupils have come 
to me, and told me a great deal that was bad 
about themselves, which I did not know, and 
asked me what they should do to break them- 
selves of their bad habits. They confessed 
their faults fully and freely. This is what 
you ought to do. That single act will do 
much towards giving your fault its death- 
blow. Perhaps you will ask, '' To whom 
shall I confess ? " You will derive great 
assistance from confessing to your parents. 
If you cannot bring yourself to talk with 
them about your faults, write ; and be very 
particular in stating all the circumstances. 
Or, confess, and express your determination 
to amend, to your teacher, and ask him to 
help you in your work. But, above all, be 
sure that you confess to God. Lay your 
whole case before him. Speak to him freely 
about it. He encourages you to do so. He 
knows how weak you are ; he remembers 
that you are dust ; he pities you as a father 
does his children ; and he has promised help 
to all who desire it, and ask him for it. 

If your fault is one which long habit has 
riveted closely upon you, Mr. Abbott recom- 
mends that you confess it in writing. This, 



90 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

I think, is wise advice ; for it makes your 
ideas more clear ; and what you put upon 
paper you impress more strongly upon your 
mind. As an example of written coufession, 
Mr. A. gives the following : — Suppose, when 
evening comes, in thinking over the events 
of the day, you remember an act of unkind- 
ness to a younger brother. Now, sit down, 
and write a full description of it, and make it 
appear exactly as it was. Paint it in its true 
colors. Express your sorrow, if you feel any, 
and just as much as you feel. Be strictly 
honest. After you have done this, you may, 
if you will, put the paper into the fire ; but 
you cannot put into the fire the vivid sense 
of your guilt, which this mode of confessing 
will have produced. 

Such confessions ought not to be written 
for preservation. It is better that they be 
destroyed. If it is expected that the record 
will ever be seen by others, however honest 
and sincere you may be, you cannot help 
being more or less influenced by that expec- 
tation. Therefore, if ever you make a writ- 
ten confession of a particular sin, it is better 
that you do it with the intention of soon 
committing the writing to the flames. 

If you have set yourself about the work of 
correcting any particular fault, and have 
taken the first step pointed out, the next 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 91 

thing necessary is to watch yourself closely. 
This is not pleasant, but you will find it very 
profitable. One of the worst things about 
any sin is, that, when we have been long 
accustomed to commit it, we often do it 
without thinking. That keen sense of guilt, 
which the act once produced, and which was 
so painful to us, we no longer feel. Now, 
this lost sensibility you must recover, or you 
can make no real progress in the attempt to 
mend your ways. And there is no other 
way in which you can get it back but by 
watching yourself narrowly, and noticing 
every time when you commit the off'ence in 
question. It would be well, perhaps, at first, 
to make a memorandum of every repetition 
of the fault you are trying to amend ; not to 
keep, but to help you in watching and check- 
ing yourself. 

I wish, my young friends, that you would 
try the experiment here recommended. You 
all know what your faults are. One can re- 
member that he is very often undutiful or 
disrespectful to his parents. Another is aware 
that she is not always kind to her sister. 
Another is irritable — often gets in a passion. 
Another is forward and talkative ; her friends 
have often reproved her, but she has never 
made any real, systematic effort to reform. 
Another is indolent — often neglecting known 



92 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

duties, and wasting time. Now, just try my 
prescription. Take the two steps which I 
have described. Confess, fully and minutely, 
the particular fault which you wish first to 
correct, (for it is best to attack one enemy at 
a time,) and then, with careful watchfulness, 
keep a record of your transgressions. You 
cannot do this with a proper spirit of depend- 
ence on God and accountability to him, with- 
out breaking the chains of any fault or any 
habit which may now be domineering over 
you. * 

The third means mentioned as necessary 
to be employed by you in trying to correct 
your faults, has reference to your exposure to 
temptation. Every thing that leads you 
astray from right is a temptation. Now, as 
it regards these things, your duty is, to avoid 
entirely those temptations which you know 
you have not strength to resist, and to meet 
all others with the fixed and firm determina- 
tion, by God's blessing and help, to conquer 
them. If playing at marbles, for example, 
alioays makes you angry, and you cannot 
help it, then the temptation to anger is, in 
that case, too strong for you, and your only 
safety lies in shunning that play altogether. 
But if, by a determined efljort, you can keep 

* Young Chrislian. 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 93 

your passion down, and you will put forth 
the needed strength, then you may not only 
play in safety, but even with advantage to 
your moral character. Every successful 
struggle you make against temptation will 
strengthen tlie prijiciple of virtue in your 
heart, and confirm the habit of virtue in your 
life. 



LETTER XV. 



The same subject continued — Prayer— Self- watchfulness 
and self-examination. 



My Young Friends, — 

I CONTINUE in my present letter what I have 
to say to you on the means of improving your 
character, and growing in goodness. Some 
of you perhaps think the subject a dull one, 
and wish I were done ; but many, 1 hope, feel 
differently, being sincerely desirous to know 
what you must do to become truly virtuous 
and useful. 

In the next place, then, you must pray 
every day to God, and seek both guidance 
and strength from him. Jesus Christ says, 
'' Suffer little children to come unto me, and 
forbid them not." What kind words ! How 
condescending ! How merciful ! How en- 
couraging ! And will you not come ? Do 
you think that God will keep you from doing- 
wrong and help you to do right, when you do 
not so much as ask him to assist you ? He 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 95 

allows you to speak freely with him ; he en- 
courages you to tell him all your wants ; he 
promises to give you what you ask, if it is 
best for you to have it. And as it is always 
best for you to have his aid in trying to be 
good, that he will always grant, if you seek 
it sincerely. . 

You should be very particular, going into 
all the little circumstances of your conduct, 
when you come to speak to God. You can- 
not learn how to pray in secret from hearing 
prayers in church or in the family. These 
prayers cannot be particular, they must be 
general. They are public prayers, and they 
must be such as all who may be present can 
join in. They must be, in this respect, like 
that beautiful prayer in the Episcopal service, 
beginning, '' Almighty and most merciful Fa- 
ther, we have erred and strayed from thy 
ways like lost sheep. * * * We have left un- 
done those things which we ought to have 
done ; and we have done those things which 
we ought not to have done ; and there is no 
health in us." This generality is proper in 
public prayers, because it expresses only that 
which all can say of themselves. But it is 
very different when you speak to God in 
secret prayer. Then all general confessions 
ought to be laid aside. You not only should 
confess that you are sinners, but tell God 



96 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

all the particulars of your sins. You should 
thank him for each of your pleasures, and if 
he has helped you to resist temptation and 
thus kept you from any wickedness, you 
ought to thank him for that also. I will give 
you a specimen of what I mean, by writing a 
little prayer, such as seems to me proper for a 
child, under the circumstances supposed, to 
use : — 

''O God, I got angry to day with my 
brother Charles, and struck him ; please to 
forgive me this sin, and help me to govern 
my temper better hereafter. I was tempted 
this morning to tell a lie to my teacher alDout 
playing in school ; but I thank God that he 
gave me strength to conquer the temptation, 
and helped me to tell the truth. May I love 
the truth, and speak it always, and thus please 
my kind Heavenly Father. I thank God for 
the pleasme I had to day in walking with my 
teacher in the fields, in listening to the story 
that he told me, in seeing the beautiful 
flowers, and in hearing the birds sing so 
sweetly. Help me to remember that all my 
pleasures come from God, and make me truly 
thankful for them. Keep me safely to night, 
and let me see another day in health, for 
Jesus Christ's sake. Amen." 

Thus, every night, before retiring to bed, 
you should think over the occurrences of the 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 97 

day, and bring the more important of them 
into your prayer, in the way either of confes- 
sion or of thanksgiving. But, perhaps you 
think as many older persons do, that, after all, 
it is not of so much use to pray. If you in- 
dulge any such thought, I assure you that you 
are very much mistaken. God has command- 
ed you to pray. Do you suppose that he 
would command you to do a thing that is en- 
tirely useless ? He has promised to answer 
your prayers. Do you think that he will 
break his promise ? '' He is not a man that 
he should lie." 

Besides this, sincere, earnest, constant, and 
believing prayer, is attended with many ad- 
vantages. It will cause you to think a great 
deal about God, and make you afraid to sin 
against him. You cannot pray constantly 
and sincerely without feeling a reverence for 
God, without cherishing love for his charac- 
ter, and gratitude for his goodness. The 
regular performance of this duty will tend to 
beget in you a sense of your own guilt and 
unworthiness, a hatred of what is mean and 
sinful, and a desire to obey and please your 
Heavenly Father. It will also make you 
watchful over your heart and conduct. Sure- 
ly, any thing which produces such effects 
cannot but be very useful to you in helping 
you to form a good character. 
8* 



98 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

Another most important means of improv- 
ing your character is self-examination and 
self-watchfuhiess. Of all kinds of knowledge, 
the most valuable and useful is a knowledge 
of ourselves. " Know thyself," is a maxim 
which was held in the highest esteem by the 
ancient heathen world. It was said by the 
philosophers to have descended from heaven. 
It was printed in golden letters over the door 
of the temple of Apollo, at Delphi, that all 
who went there might see it. But, valuable 
as this self-knowledge is, it is very difficult 
to acquire it. Thales, a famous philosopher 
of ancient Greece j used to say, '^ that for a 
man to know himself is the hardest thing in 
the world." 

The Bible also represents an acquaintance 
with ourselves as of the utmost importance. 
It is full of exhortation to examine, search, 
prove ourselves. " Examine yourselves ; prove 
your own selves ; let a man examine himself; 
keep thy heart with all diligence ; commune 
with your own heart." Such expressions as 
these abound in the Holy Scriptures. God 
would not so often and earnestly urge us to 
become acquainted with ourselves, if self- 
acquaintance were not very useful. Suppose 
that all the children in your school were as 
eager to know themselves, as to join in your 
plays, and suppose you all made it your daily 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 99 

business to try and become better acquainted 
with yourselves — do you not think that the 
school would soon be quite different from 
what it is ? Would there not be a great deal 
more good, and a great deal less that is bad, 
in your conduct, than there now is ? 

" Self-knowledge is that acquaintance with 
ourselves, which shows us wliat we are and 
do, and what we ought to be and do, in 
order to our living comfortably and usefully 
here, and happily hereafter." This kind of 
knowledge you never can get without self- 
examination. The proper time to examine 
youi'selves, is, when you say your prayers at 
night. You cannot pray properly or profita- 
bly without examining yourselves. Perhaps 
you think that self-examination is a very diffi- 
cult matter. The word is hard, but not the 
thing. Can you not sit down at night, and 
spend five minutes in thinking over what you 
have done and how you have felt through 
the day ? Can you not remember whether 
you have been angry, disobedient, or wilful ? 
Can you not remember whether you have 
taken God's name in vain, told a lie, or 
quarrelled with a companion ? Can you not 
call to mind whether you have, in any case, 
resisted a temptation to do wrong ? whether 
you have tried to behave well in school, and 
please your teacher ? Is there any thing hard 



100 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

in this ? Is it not, on the contrary, perfectly 
easy ? Well, this is self-examination. And 
it is both your duty and your interest to do 
this every night. How can you pray proper- 
ly without it ? When you speak to God at 
the close of the day, you want to tell him 
about your conduct through the day. If he 
has helped you to be good, you want to thank 
him for his aid ; if you have broken his com- 
mandments, you want to confess it, and ask 
his forgiveness. You cannot do this without 
remembering ; you cannot remember without 
thinking ; and you cannot think seriously 
about the occurrences of the day, without ex- 
amining yourselves. 

I do hope, my young friends, that you will 
try to form this habit of daily consideration 
and self-questioning. You know something 
about the history of the Jews ; you know 
how ungrateful they were towards God for 
his mercies ; how they forsook the true God 
and worshipped idols ; how, in short, they 
committed all manner of wickedness. God 
himself tells us the reason of all this. And 
what do you suppose it is ? Neither more nor 
less than this : " My people do not consider.^' 
They did not think. How much virtue there 
is in thinking ! Will you then neglect it ? 



LETTER XVI. 



Same subject continued— The Bible — Observance of the 
Sabbath. 



My Young Fi^iends, — 

I GO on with my endeavor to show you 
what you must do, in order to form a good 
character. Another means to this end, which 
you will find very useful, is a regular, dili- 
gent, and prayerful study of the Holy Scrip- 
tures. The world is full of books. Many 
of them are bad ; but there are a great many 
also that are very good and useful. But if 
all the books (other than the Bible) in all the 
libraries, public and private, in the whole 
world, were gathered together in one pile, 
and all the Bibles in the world collected into 
another, and we were compelled to choose 
between having one pile or the other burnt, 
what do you think a truly wise man would 
advise ? He would not hesitate a moment in 
saying, " Let us keep the Bible, and let all 
the others go." 



102 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

The Bible, then, is not only the best book 
in the world, but it is better and worth more 
than all the others put together. Now, I want 
to shoAV you why. Wherein does the excel- 
lence of the Bible consist, and what shows 
us that it is so much superior to alb other pro- 
ductions ? 

It is God's book, and the only one in which 
he has ever spoken to man. He did not write 
it himself, but he inspired men to write it. 
Perhaps you do not know what inspire means. 
It means that he taught them what to say. 
In some way — we know not exactly how — 
he directed them while they were writing, so 
that they should put down nothing that was 
not true. Now, do you think that the great, 
wise, and good God would have caused a 
book to be written for us, unless he had some- 
thing very important to say — something that 
would be expressly useful for us to know ? 
You feel assured that he, would not. If you 
were to hear a voice speaking to you, and 
knew certainly that it was the voice of your 
Maker, would you not be all attention ? 
Would you be listless and indifferent ? Would 
you not rather be eager to catch every sylla- 
ble uttered ? Yes, verily. Study you could 
not, and play would have no charm for you 
under such circumstances. Well, God speaks 
to you as really in his Word, as he would in 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 103 

the case supposed. Why will you not give 
equal heed to his written teachings ? They 
are none the less precious because we have 
them always by us. This, indeed, adds 
greatly to their value. Why, then, will you 
let every trifle keep you from the Book of 
books ? I beseech you to think of this mat- 
ter. Consider it well, and make up your 
mind deliberately either to study and attend to 
what God says, or to reject it altogether, and 
neither to think nor care any thing about it. 

The design, pin-pose, or end, for which 
God gave us the Bible, shows how excellent 
it must be. God is all-wise. He knows 
every thing. Of course, he knows perfectly 
what will make us both good and happy. 
Now he caused the Bible to be written for 
this very thing. He tells us so himself, over 
and over again. He represents himself as 
tender, pitiful, compassionate, condescending, 
forgiving, and patient ; not willing that any 
should be miserable — not willing that any 
should perish. Can you suppose that he 
would mock and deceive us by pretending to 
teach us what we must do to become good 
and happy, when all the time he was only 
leading us in the way of sin and misery ? It 
is almost impious to ask the question ; it 
would be awful impiety to think so. But 
you know better. You know that God loves 



104 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN, 

you, and wishes you to be virtuous. You 
know that he desires your salvation from sin 
and misery. You know that he has given 
you the Bible expressly to teach you what 
virtue is, and how you can be saved. And 
you know that a book with such an Author, 
and written for such a purpose, must be a 
most excellent book, and worthy of your 
deep attention and constant study. 

When we look into the Bible to see what 
its contents are, to find out what it teaches 
us both to do and to avoid, we learn more 
fully its great and. unequalled excellence as a 
rule of conduct. There is nothing good 
which the Bible does not command, nor bad 
which it does not forbid ; no virtuous disposi- 
tion or praise-worthy action which it does not 
commend and enjoin, and no vicious temper 
or habit which it does not condemn, denounce, 
and warn us to shun. As the great, essential, 
all-important foundation of character, it in- 
culcates supreme love to God, our Creator and 
Preserver, and love to all our fellow-creatures 
equal to that we bear ourselves. What are 
the virtues which we usually consider as 
forming a truly good and worthy character? 
Are they not truth, justice, benevolence, and 
generosity ; industry, honesty, temperance, 
gentleness, forbearance, kindness, and sympa- 
thy ? But all these virtues, and every other 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 105 

that can be named, are taught and inculcated 
in the Holy Scriptures. And all the vices 
opposed to them are as distinctly denounced 
and forbidden. 

But the Bible teaches us also — and this is 
one of its greatest excellences — by example ; 
the example of many good men, but chiefly 
that of Jesus Christ ; all which are recorded 
for our instruction and benefit. You cannot 
too often or too attentively read the history 
of our blessed Saviour. Nothing else has 
ever been written half so beautiful, interest- 
ing, or instructive. Jesus Christ came into 
the world for three things. First, to suffer 
and die for us. Secondly, to tell us what 
we ought to do. And thirdly, to show us by 
his own example what sort of life we ought 
to live. Now, you ought to study his history 
in order to become acquainted with this ex- 
ample. There are, indeed, some things in 
which you cannot follow in his example. 
You cannot open the eyes of a blind man, 
nor unstop the ears of one that is deaf. You 
cannot heal the sick, nor raise the dead, nor 
calm the storm, nor walk upon the sea. But 
there are many, very many things, in which 
you can imitate his example, and ought to do 
it. He was obedient and affectionate to his 
father and mother ; kind, gentle, obliging, 
and faithful to his friends ; meek, patient, 
9 



106 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

forbearing, compassionate, and forgiving to- 
wards his enemies. He never rendered evil 
for evil, but, on the contrary, blessing for 
cursing, and prayers for persecutions. He 
never told a lie, nor got angry ; and was 
neither selfish nor revengeful. He never did 
an injury to any one, nor used harsh language 
towards any one of the many who despised 
and insulted him. '^ He Avas fervent in prayer, 
and diligent in duty, and he did all he could 
while he remained here, to relieve men of 
their present sufferings, and above all to save 
them from their sins." In all this, he has 
left us an example that we should walk in 
his steps ; and that we may the better be 
able to do so, we must diligently study the 
record of his example as contained in the 
several Gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke, 
and John. 

The surpassing excellence of the Bible 
appears also in the fruits or effects which it 
produces. You may look at these effects in 
a twofold light, that is, either as they show 
themselves in nations, or are seen in individ- 
uals. You have doubtless read or heard 
something about the character and condition 
of the heathen. Such a thing as virtue or 
happiness is hardly known among them. 
They are ignorant, cruel, malicious, and re- 
vengeful. They have no schools, no hos- 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 107 

pitals, no alms-houses, no asylums for orphans 
or widows, no Sabbaths, and even no God, 
but such as they themselves make of wood, 
clay, stone, or metal. Why is it not so with 
us ? Simply because we have the Bible. If 
you were a heathen child, your parents, in- 
stead of sending you to school as they do 
now, might offer you up in sacrifice to some 
dumb idol. 

You see how much better our condition as 
a nation is made by our possession of the 
Bible. But this divine book improves the 
character of individuals, as much as it does 
that of nations. The changes of character 
produced by the Bible are among the most 
remarkable and wonderful things in the his- 
tory of the human race. It often makes the 
intemperate sober, the quarrelsome peaceable, 
the idle industrious, the profane reverent to- 
wards God, the stingy liberal, the deceitful 
truth-loving ; in short, the bad good. Some 
changes of this kind I doubt not you have 
yourselves clearly seen, and you will see 
more as you grow older. 

Now what conclusion will you come to 
from all that I have said ? The Bible came 
from God ; it was given to us expressly for 
the purpose of teaching us to become good ; 
its instructions are all of the purest and best 
kind ; and it has actually, in innumerable 



108 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

cases, and in the most wonderful manner, 
improved both the character and condition of 
nations and individuals. Surely such a book 
is worthy of your constant and deep study, 
and cannot but be a most important aid to 
you in forming for yourselves such a charac- 
ter as will make you, when you become men 
and women, respectable, useful, and happy. 

I shall mention but one other means to be 
employed by you for the formation of a good 
character, and then go on to say something 
to you on a very different subject. It is to 
keep holy the Sabbath day, according to the 
commandments of God. The Sabbath is a 
day of rest, but not of idleness. It is for the 
refreshment of both our body and our mind, 
to the end that the former may be prepared 
for the labor by which we must gain our 
bread, and the latter strengthened to resist 
temptation, and to perform our duties. Those 
abuse the Sabbath, therefore, who spend it 
either idly, or in play. It was made for our 
use, and all who use it aright ; that is, in 
learning something about God and about 
what he requires us to do, may rest assured 
that it will not be in vain. Good principles 
will be strengthened by it, good habits fos- 
tered, good resolutions confirmed ; and what- 
ever there is in the heart that is bad will be 
in the same degree weakened, and will lose 
its power to harm us. 



LETTER XVIL 



Nature of Education— All are educated, but in different 
ways— Objects of Education — 1st, The cultivation of our 
powers— 2d, The attainment of knowledge— 3d, The for- 
mation of good habits. 



My Young Fj^iends, — 

In this letter, and a few ottiers that will 
follow it, I am going to say something on 
the subject of education, which I hope you 
will find both interesting and useful. It will 
not amuse you as much as a story ; but, if 
you read it attentively, I am sure it will be 
more profitable. 

What is education ? What does education 
do for you ? I will try to tell you. You 
often hear it said, that such a person has an 
education ; that he has been educated. My 
dear children, every body has an education ; 
every body is educated, one as much as an- 
other. This sounds strangely to you, no 
doubt ; but the reason is, that you have been 

accustomed to attach a wrong meaning to the 
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110 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

word education. You have supposed that it 
means merely what is learned in schools, col- 
leges, &c. But this is a mistake. Every- 
thing that exerts any permanent influence 
upon you, every thing that at all affects your 
character, helps to educate you. Thus, if 
you are very fond of marbles, and play a great 
deal, but almost always get angry when you 
play, the tendency of this will be to make 
you habitually irritable, fretful, passionate. 
In such a case, the game of marbles becomes 
an important part of your education. It may 
affect both your conduct and happiness in 
after life more than all you ever learned at 
school. Thus, too, you perceive that a tav- 
ern, a theatre, a ball-room, a market-place, a 
travelling coach, or a play-ground, is as really 
a place of education as a school-room, or a 
college hall. 

Do you not see an important consequence, 
which follows from what I have said ? You 
are associated in a school, — twenty, thirty, 
forty, fifty, or it may be a hundred, of you 
together. You imagine that all the education 
you receive at your school must come from 
the master. But is it so ? Do you not, in 
fact, educate each other as much as you are 
educated by him ? Undoubtedly you do. 
This throws a weighty responsibility upon 
you. But this matter I have already explain- 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. Ill 

ed to you, if I am not mistaken, in speaking 
to you on the duty of co-operating with your 
teachers in their efforts for the good of their 
pupils. If you have forgotten what I said to 
you in that letter, turn back to it, and read it 
again. 

Now, if all alike are educated, wherein do 
they differ from one another? Merely in 
this, that some receive a different kind of 
education from the others. The education of 
one portion of mankind makes them wise, 
good, useful, and happy ; that of another por- 
tion makes them ignorant, vicious, useless, 
and miserable. The one species of education, 
therefore, is good, and worthy to be diligently 
sought after ; the other is bad, and ought to 
be as diligently guarded against ; for, unfor- 
tunately, the bad can be had any where and 
every where, and that without effort on our 
part ; while the good can be obtained only 
by seeking and laboring to attain it. 

What, then, is the object of a good educa- 
tion ? In one word, it is to put a rational 
creature in a condition to fulfil, in the best 
manner, his various duties. But this answer 
is too general for you, and, perhaps, a little 
obscure. I must try to be somewhat plainer. 

Your duties grow out of your relations. 
You sustain many and various relations to 
other beings. God is your Creator, Benefac- 



112 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

tor, and Governor ; your relations to him, 
therefore, are those of creature, beneficiary, 
and subject. As such, you owe him rever- 
ence, love, gratitude, and obedience. Your 
relations to your fellow-creatures are very 
numerous. Christ has taught us that all men 
are brothers. This, then, is our first and 
most important relation to our fellow-men ; 
and it imposes on us the duty of loving them 
all as much as we love ourselves, and of doing 
to them as we would have them do to us. 
We also bear various other relations to one 
another ; some of which are those of parents 
and children, husbands and wives, brothers 
and sisters, teachers and pupils, masters and 
servants, magistrates and citizens, friends, 
neiglibors, ifec. Each class of relations in- 
volves a new class of duties. You can easily 
see, from this, how numerous, various, toil- 
some, and difficult your duties will be. Now, 
the object of education is, to fit you to dis- 
charge all your duties in the best possible 
manner. Is not this a noble object ? Is it 
not worthy of being sought after with dili- 
gence ? You will all say, Yes ; but will you 
act as if you thought so ? Many, I hope, will 
thus act ; and if they do, let them be assured 
that their reward will be great. 

" But," you will perhaps ask, '' how is this 
great object to be attained ? " I answer, 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 113 

through the attainment of some other objects, 
which are subordinate and conducive to it. 
^' And what are these ? " Chiefly three : that 
is, the cuUivation of our various powers, the 
attainment of knowledge, and the formation 
of good habits. These are the three main 
ends to be aimed at in education, as condu- 
cive to the ultimate and still higher end of 
qualifying ourselves to discharge our duties 
honorably, happily, and usefully. 

More particularly, then, the first object to 
be aimed at in education is, to discipline and 
train your various powers, so that you can 
use them skilfully and successfully in what- 
ever you undertake. God, your Creator, has 
given you a threefold nature ; physical, intel- 
lectual, and moral. Each of these he has 
endowed with various powers. With your 
bodies you see, hear, smell, taste, feel, handle, 
walk, labor, &c. These are all examples of 
physical powers. With your minds you can 
observe, attend, compare, reason, remember, 
imagine, &c. These are intellectual powers. 
Besides this, you have a conscience, which 
tells you both when you do right and when 
you do wrong ; and you have the ability to 
love and practise goodness, and to hate and 
shun what is wicked. These are moral 
powers. 

Now, all these powers are weak when you 



114 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

are young, but they are capable of being 
strengthened and improved. The way to 
strengthen them is to use them. If you 
would improve your powers of walking and 
riding, how else can you do it but by exer- 
cising yourselves in walking and riding ? if 
your powers of seeing and hearing, how but 
by using your eyes and ears ? If you desire 
to strengthen your faculty of observation, 
you must keep your eyes open wherever you 
go, and narrowly observe all that you see. 
If you would improve your power of compar- 
ison, you must exercise yourself in comparing 
different objects with one another, and noting 
wherein they are alike, and wherein unlike. 
If you would strengthen the power of con- 
science, you must be careful to do every thing 
you know to be right, and to abstain from 
whatever you feel to be wrong. And so of all 
your other physical, mental, and moral pow- 
ers. It is only by using them, that you can 
strengthen and perfect them. One principal 
object of many studies in schools and colleges 
is, to exercise the intellectual powers, and 
thus to increase their strength. Scholars 
sometimes ask, '' What good will it do us to 
know this ? " That is not the right question. 
They should ask, " What good will it do us 
to learn it ? " Perhaps, if you study geome- 
try, or algebra, you will never, in your whole 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 115 

life, have occasion to use the knowledge you 
gain in studying them. But, there will be a 
thousand things, having, it may be, no direct 
relation to those sciences, which you will do 
better from having learned them. Why ? 
Because the very act of learning them has 
strengthened your mind, and given you com- 
mand of its powers. 

The second object to be aimed at in edu- 
cation is to gain knowledge. It is not enough 
that you cultivate your powers, and learn to 
use them skilfully and well. You must 
know something ; nay, you must knoAv a great 
deal. " That the soul be without knowledge, 
it is not good," says Solomon, who was the 
wisest man that ever lived. And God him- 
self makes this remarkable declaration, " The 
people PERISH for lack of knowledge." If 
you desire to gain a respectable standing, or 
to have any influence in society, if you 
would respect yourselves and be happy, and 
above all, if you have any wish to do good 
to others, with all your getting, you must get 
knowledge. 

There are several kinds of knowledge. 
The first and most important is a knowledge 
of God, including a knowledge of your rela- 
tions to him, and the duties which you owe 
him. Next in importance to this is a knowl- 
edge of yourselves. Besides this, you ought 



116 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN, 

to have some knowledge of what has hap- 
pened in past times, that is, of history. You 
should be in some measure acquainted with 
the geogra}3hy, manners, customs, curiosities, 
arts, sciences, inventions, governments, and 
various institutions of the different countries 
on the globe. The external world, both ani- 
mate and inanimate, ought also to receive a 
share of your attention. But, above all — next 
to a knowledge of God, yourselves, and your 
duties — should you seek to become well ac- 
quainted with the history, constitution, laws, 
and institutions of your own country. You 
are to be American citizens. As such, you 
will have many high and important duties to 
perform. At periods recurring very frequent- 
ly, you will have to take a part in organizing 
the Government, by exercismg the right of 
voting. This is a duty which all of you, 
who are males, will have to discharge. You 
will be liable to be called upon to act as ju- 
rors and magistrates. Every citizen ought to 
be qualified to act in these capacities. But, 
in order to perform these duties usefully to 
your fellow-citizens, you must have intel- 
ligence ; you must have gained no small 
amount of knowledge. 

The third object to be secured by educa- 
tion is the formation of good habits. This 
is a very important point. Dr» Paley, with a 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 117 



good deal of truth, calls man a ^^ bundle of 
habits." Whatever we do from habit, we do 
easily ; and it is a fact that almost all our 
actions are regulated entirely by habit. It is 
only upon extraordinary occasions, that we 
take time to think and make up our mind 
deliberately Avhat to do. A boy who is in 
the habit of using profane language, swears 
without thinking. Another who has a habit 
of lying, wi]l often lie without any apparent 
object to be gained by it. A third who is 
habitually idle, can scarcely study even when 
he tries ; his attention will be continually 
called off from his book by every trifle that 
occurs. On the contrary, the child, who has 
formed the habit of reverencing the Deity, 
speaking the truth, and being industrious, 
will naturally, and without effort, abstain 
from profaneness, falsehood, and indolence. 
This is enough to show you how exceedingly 
important it is that you form virtuous habits 
while you are young. Some of the most 
important habits for young persons to form 
are those of industry, kindness, justice, truth, 
generosity, self-government, and of being 
useful, or doing good to others. But you 
cannot acquire these habits without trying. 
They will not come to you of themselves. 
You will have to labor for them. You must 
resolve that you will practise these virtues 
10 



118 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

now, while you are young, and you must not 
only make the resolution, but adhere to it. 
No one ever became truly good without long- 
continued and vigorous exertion. But habits 
of some kind you cannot help forming. If 
you do not try to form good ones, bad ones 
will of themselves grow apace. As you grow 
up to maturity, you will necessarily become 
either good or bad. It is for you to determine 
now which you will be. What your future 
characters shall be depends entirely upon 
yourselves. Make your choice speedily. 
Time flies rapidly. Every hour that you 
delay your choice, it will be harder for you 
to choose right. Be diligent ; be kind to all 
your companions, and to the brute creation ; 
reverence your Creator ; be strictly honest ; 
speak the truth always ; practise generosity ; 
govern yourselves, and try to be as useful as 
you can. Do these things constantly now, 
and they will, by degrees, become habitual 
with you. Virtuous principles will then be 
established in your hearts, and virtuous con- 
duct in your lives ; and you will be useful 
and happy. 



LETTER XVIII. 



Means of Education — Diligence and study — Obedience to 
teachers and parents — Self-examination— A conscientious 
discharge of duty — Self-denial — General Reading — Writ- 
ing — Amusements— Study of the Bible. 



My Young Friends, — 

I HAVE told you what Education is, and 
what objects it aims to accompHsh. In this 
letter I will endeavor to tell you what you 
must do in order to acquire a good education. 
A book might easily be written on this subject, 
but I must put all I have to say on it^ in a 
single letter, which I hope you will read at- 
tentively. 

1. You must be diligent in study. You 
have a great deal to learn. You know ^but 
little yet ; but there is much which you ought 
to know. If you were the children of savage 
parents, all that it would be necessary for you 
to learn would be to fish, hunt, and fight. 
This is the education of savages. Not so, 
however, among us. You are to be citizens 



120 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

of a free, civilized, and enlightened country. 
You cannot rise to respectability, you cannot 
gain for yourselves any influence, you cannot 
even perform properly the common duties of 
citizens, without a considerable degree of 
knowledge. I told you in my last letter what 
things you ought to know ; it is not worth 
while to take up space in going over them 
again. Now, it requires a great deal of labor 
and a great deal of time to learn all those 
things. But most of you have but a few 
years to spend in going to school. Can you 
afford to throw any part of that time away ? 
Have you space for idleness ? Bethink your- 
selves. Consider the matter seriously. Make 
up your minds deliberately one way or the 
other. Diligence alone will enable you to 
gain that knowledge which you need. But 
this is not the only advantage you will derive 
from diligence. Industrious application to 
stud/ will strengthen your mental powers. 
Every lesson that you learn properly will in- 
crease your intellectual ability. Diligence in 
study will also tend to form and strengthen 
good habits, especially the habit of industry. 
And this is one of the most useful and valua- 
ble habits you can acquire. Thus you see 
that the three objects of education are all 
promoted by a diligent attention to study. 
It increases your knowledge ; it makes your 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 121 

minds grow and strengthen ; and it tends to 
the formation of virtuous habits. 

2. You must practise a constant and wil- 
ling obedience to all the rules and regulations 
of your school, and this whether you are 
seen or not by your teachers. Remember 
what the objects of education are. One of 
these objects, as you have seen, is to gain 
knoAvledge ; another is to discipline your 
minds, and strengthen their powers. But 
these are not the only ends to be aimed at ; 
nor are they the most important. To estab- 
lish virtuous principles in the heart, and vir- 
tuous habits in the life is an object of far 
higher importance, and one which will tend 
in a much greater degree to make you here- 
after both useful and happy. A cheerful and 
uniform obedience to school regulations will 
promote virtue in all who practise it. You 
may easily convince yourselves of this. Take 
two of your companions, one of whom always 
conforms to the rules, and the other as con- 
stantly breaks them. Think a little about 
their character and conduct. Which of 
them is the most gentle, peaceable, kind, 
obliging, docile, and industrious ? Which 
the most turbulent, passionate, selfish, un- 
governable, and indolent ? Which is likely 
to be the best and happiest man ? I leave 
10* 



122^ LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

you to answer these questions yourselves ; 
you can be at no loss how to answer. 

3. You must in like manner be obedient to 
the commands of your parents. This is an 
indispensable and most important means of 
moral education. But it is so much like the 
last that it is not necessary to dwell upon it. 

4. Self-examination and self-watchfulness 
are another and most valuable means of edu- 
cation. Bear in mind, my dear children, that 
one of the great objects of education is the 
formation of a good character. It is easy 
even for a very young person to see how much 
this object will be promoted by a daily in- 
quiry into our actions, for the purpose of 
ascertaining how far they have been right, 
and how far wrong. If every night each 
of you ask seriously and honestly, " Have I 
been gentle, kind, and forbearing to-day? 
Have I been diligent in study or work ? 
Have I governed my temper, and kept my- 
self from being angry ? Have I been open, 
frankhearted, and free from all deceit ? Have 
I been obedient to my parents and teachers ? 
Have I been free from all selfishness and 
cruelty? Have I practised the virtues of 
truth and justice in my intercourse with 
others ? Have I been cheerful and content- 
ed? Have I read a portion of God's word, 
and prayed to my Heavenly Father ? Have 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 123 

I resisted any temptation ? Have I been 
punctual, cleanly, and temperate in eating ? " 
— If, I say, you ask these and such Hke ques- 
tions every night before retiring to bed, 
with the sincere desire of ascertaining where- 
in your conduct has been as it should be, 
and wherein you have done amiss, do you 
not think that the tendency of such self- 
examination would be to make you more care- 
ful about what you do? Undoubtedly it 
would. And thus both the principles of 
virtue and the habits of virtue would be 
strengthened in you, which is one of the chief 
ends of all good education. 

5. A conscientious discharge of all known 
duty is another means of education. This 
you can very readily perceive. How do you 
form a hahit of doing any thing ? By doing 
it very frequently. This is the way vicious 
habits are always contracted. A child will 
not get a hahit of lying, stealing, and profane 
swearing, by committing those faults once or 
twice. It is by telling many lies, by stealing 
many things, and by o/^en taking God's name 
in vain, that these dreadful habits are formed 
and fastened upon any individual. Good 
habits are formed and strengthened in exactly 
the same manner. If you desire to gain the 
hahit of speaking the truth, you must be care- 
ful to speak it ahvays ; if to form the habit 



124 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

of kindness, you must be ever kind ; if to be- 
come habitually just, you must practise jus- 
tice in all your intercourse with others. And 
so of all the other virtues. A virtuous 
CHARACTER — thc hlghcst aud best result of 
education — can be acquired only by a diligent, 
uniform, and conscientious performance of 
every thing which you know to be your duty. 
6. There is one duty of so much impor- 
tance as a means of education, that it deserves 
to be mentioned by itself, viz. self-denial. 
This is refusing some pleasure to ourselves, 
that we may have the means of adding to 
the comfort or the happiness of others. Thus, 
the child who denies himself the pleasure of 
eating candy, that he may give his money to 
the poor — and the man who denies himself the 
pleasure of driving a carriage for the same 
purpose, both practise self-denial. The prac- 
tice of self-denial is attended with many 
good effects. It makes us generous and 
liberal, tender-hearted and kind ; and it causes 
us to desire to live not for our own pleasure 
merely, but also for the happiness and benefit 
of others. Thus it expands our hearts, and 
exalts our nature ; and tends to drive out 
selfishness, one of the worst of vices, from 
our bosoms. ''Deny thyself," therefore, is a 
maxim with which even the very young 
ought to make themselves particularly fa- 
miliar. 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 125 

7. Besides the class-books that you study 
in school, you must read many other books. 
General reading is a very important means of 
education. This is an age of books, and 
many excellent ones have been written ex- 
pressly for children. The publishers of this 
book, — Marsh, Capen and Lyon, — are going 
to print a hundred volumes for common school- 
children, written by some of the best and 
wisest men in the country. The children's 
books that have been printed already, and 
those that will be hereafter, do and will con- 
tain a great deal of useful and interesting in- 
formation on a great many different subjects. 
Now, in order to learn what you ought to 
know, you will have to read many, very 
many books. You ought, therefore, to de- 
vote all the time you can to reading. In this 
way you will become fond of it, and form 
the habit of employing your leisure time use- 
fully. But you must be careful how you 
read. It is not every mode of reading that 
is useful. Some will skim over a great many 
books as rapidly as possible, so that they 
boast of the number they have read. It is of 
no use to read this way. A. book that is 
worth reading at all is worth reading slowly. 
You should stop every now and then, and 
shut your book, and think over what you 
have been reading. This is the only way in 



126 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

which you can learn any thing from what 
you read ; it is the only way in which you 
can make what you learn your own. 

8. Another means of education is writing. 
No one yet ever gained a good and thorough 
education without using the pen a great deal. 
It is a good practice to read over carefully 
once or twice a chapter in a book, and then 
close it, and write down all you can remem- 
ber. This will improve your style of compo- 
sition, and make you remember a great deal 
better what you read. Franklin used to 
write over the papers in the Spectator in this 
manner, and it was by this means that he 
formed so pleasant a style of writing. An- 
other good practice is to make abstracts or 
abridgements of the best works you read. If 
you do not know what this means, get your 
teacher to explain it to you, and to tell you 
how to do it. There is no more improving 
or useful exercise than this. Keeping a jour- 
nal of all that you see and hear of any impor- 
tance is another extremely useful way of em- 
ploying your pen. This not only gives you 
ease in writing, but it makes you attentive to 
what is going on around you^ and observant 
of what you see. 

9. Your very amusements are a means of 
education. They help to educate you in 
spite of yourselves. They have a very great 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 



127 



eifect upon your temper and habits. At your 
age you must have amusement. Play is the 
hfe of a child. There is no sight which I 
like better to see than a group of happy chil- 
dren engaged in some exhilarating play. The 
amusements of children are numerous and 
various; but they may all be very well 
divided into two classes, — those which are 
hurtful, and those which are useful. Seden- 
tary games, that is, those which you play 
within doors, ought not to be much indulged 
in by children. The young require active 
sports. Without them you cannot become 
either strong or healthy. Your plays in child- 
hood have an important influence on your 
health in after life. There are some sports 
which foster a cruel disposition. Such are 
catching and torturing flies and other insects, 
shooting birds, and the like. To take pleas- 
ure in chasing the timid hare, in tearing and 
mangling the flesh of the beautiful squirrel, 
and in shooting the life out of the innocent 
birds that sing so sweetly in the woods, is 
surely the mark of an unfeeling and almost 
a savage heart. God made all animalsy 
whether they walk on the earth, or fly in the 
air, or swim in the waters, to be happy in 
their way. Now, when, through mere wanton- 
ness or for the sake of amusement, you vex, 
hurt, or kill them, do you not set yourself 



128 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

up against God, and oppose his kind inten- 
tion ? Many amusements are expensive, and 
many also are both expensive and injurious 
in their moral influence, such as going to the 
theatre, circus, &c. Both these should be 
avoided. Perhaps your parents can ill afford 
such expenses ; but even if they can, how 
many ways are there in which money can be 
more usefully laid out. Would it not be far 
better to give it to those who have nothing 
with which to buy bread to eat, or fuel to keep 
themselves warm ? Would it not give you 
more pleasure, as well as do more good, to 
buy a few pair of stockings for some poor 
children who have none, than to take a ride 
on horseback ? 

God, our benevolent Creator, has provided 
for the young an abundance of innocent and 
useful pleasures. There are amusements 
whose tendency is to develope your muscular 
energies, to strengthen your bodily frame, to 
cultivate a taste for the beauties of nature, to 
convey useful knowledge, to impart and 
nourish a habit of industry, — in one word, to 
educate the physical, intellectual, and moral 
powers of man. These are not only the most 
proper for children, but they are the most 
truly delightful. Gardening is one of this 
class of amusements. Skating, swimming, 
the various games of ball, flying of kites, ex- 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 129 

cursions into the fields to collect plants and 
minerals, viewing the planets and constella- 
tions of a clear evening, historical and geo- 
graphical games, experiments in natural philos- 
ophy and chemistry, the use of the more com- 
mon tools and implements of carpentry, these 
and other kindred amusements are never-fail- 
ing sources of innocent pleasure to young 
minds, that have not been spoiled by improper 
gratifications. 

10. The last means of education which I 
shall mention, and the most important of all, 
is a diligent, and constant, and prayerful 
study of the Holy Scriptures. A knowledge 
of God and of our duty is the most valuable 
of all kinds of knowledge, and of this the 
Bible is the only rare and sufficient source. 
But this subject demands a volume by itself, 
and I am happy that just such a volume as 
is needed has been written ; and one that all 
children can understand. And it is so inter- 
esting, that when I first got hold of it and 
began to read it, I did net stop once till I had 
read it through. It is called, " The Scrip- 
ture Guide : A familiar Introduction to the 
study of the Bible." It was published by 
the American Sunday School Union, and 
costs only thirty-seven cents. I wish every 
child in America could read it. I hope all 
who read these letters will request their pa- 
rents to buy it for them. 
11 



LETTER XIX. 

Advantages of Education — Improvement of Time. 



My Young Friends, — 

To obtain a good education requires a great 
deal of hard work, and that continued for a 
long time. Now, what is education worth ? 
If it has not some value, it would be very 
foolish to undergo the labor and spend the 
time necessary to acquire it. What is its 
worth ? What are its advantages ? What 
makes it worth your while to work so long 
and so hard to secure it ? A very few words 
in answer to these inquiries will close this 
little volume of letters. 

Education alone will prepare you for your 
future duties. You live in a civilized coun- 
try, and not only that, but in one where the 
people govern. Each one of the people may 
be chosen to fill any office in the government. 
Can you, without education, perform the du- 
ties of a representative, a judge, a juror, or 
even of a justice of the peace. But every 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 131 

citizen in a free country ought to be able to 
discharge these duties with credit to himself 
and benefit to his fellow-citizens. And 
whether you ever hold any office or not, it 
will be the duty of every one of you, who is 
a male, to vote at the annual and biennial 
elections. It is in this way that every Amer- 
ican citizen takes a part, or may and ought 
to take a part, in the administration of the 
government. Every voter should be intelli- 
gent and independent. In this alone lies our 
safety as a nation. But this he cannot be 
without education. 

It is by having a good education, and by 
that only, that you can gain for yourselves 
respectability and influence among your fel- 
low-citizens. Look around you, and see 
who are most honored and trusted. Who 
are the most looked up to for advice ? Whose 
opinions have the greatest weight? You 
know full well that it is not the uneducated 
and ignorant. It is the intelligent, the wise, 
and the virtuous ; in one word, the well edu- 
cated. 

Education elevates the character of every 
one who possesses it, and is the only posses- 
sion which makes a man truly independent. 
Remember that education, to be of the right 
kind, must include not merely knowledge, 
but virtue ; not only a cultivated mind, but an 



132 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

upright heart and pure life. Education will 
greatly increase your happiness. How many 
more sources of enjoyment are open to an 
educated than to an ignorant man ! The 
pleasures of sense, such as eating, drinking, 
hunting, fishing, riding, &c., are almost the 
only kind that the ignorant are capable of 
enjoying. Not so with those who, by study 
and reading, have laid up a store of knowl- 
edge. They have higher, purer, and better 
sources of enjoyments. The educated are 
generally fond of reading, and a taste for 
good books is a never-failing spring of happi- 
ness. To a person possessing this taste, his- 
tory, biography, philosophy, travels, all the 
wonders of air, earth, and ocean, are so many 
ministers of enjoyment. And what unspeak- 
ably increases the value of education is, that 
it is a possession which cannot be taken away 
from you. If you have houses, they may be 
burnt down ; if you have lands, your titles 
may turn out worthless ; if you have stocks, 
they may lose their value through the villany 
of others ; health may be undermined by 
disease ; office may be snatched from you by 
popular caprice ; you may be stripped of eve- 
ry external possession in a thousand ways : 
but education, knowledge, virtue, the riches 
of the mind, remain ever with you. You 
cannot part with them, even if you would. 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 133 

They are with you, at home and abroad ; in 
prosperity and adversity ; by sea and by land ; 
in sickness and in health ; in youth, in man- 
hood, and in old age. How truly, then, is it 
declared in holy Scripture that wisdom is the 
principal thing. 

Education will increase both your ability 
and your disposition to be useful. To do 
good is the great object for which all of you 
ought to live. To live for yourselves alone is 
the mark of a mean and selfish spirit. Lift 
up your eyes, and look abroad upon the world. 
See how much ignorance there is to be en- 
lightened, how much suffering to be relieved, 
how much vice to be rooted out, how much 
sorrow to be soothed, how much misery to be 
alleviated. Do you not desire to take a part 
in the noble work of curing these evils ? It 
will be little that you can do, and little that 
you will be disposed to do, unless by diligent 
effort in youth, you gain that knowledge and 
goodness, which it is the object of education 
to supply. 

These are a few only of the many advan- 
tages which educated persons enjoy over the 
uneducated. But, are they not enough to 
invite you to diligence ? Do they not make 
you pant after knowledge ? Are they not 
sufficient to produce in your minds the firm 
11* 



134 LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 

resolution to exert yourselves to the utmost 
in your efforts to obtain a good education ? 

Let me, then, in conclusion, my dear young 
friends, earnestly exhort you to a diligent and 
faithful employment of your time. It has 
been said that time is money ; that it is the 
poor man's estate, &c. It is much more than 
these. If rightly improved, it is knowledgCj 
wisdom, intellectual power, health, and vir- 
tue. It is a talent given you by the Creator, 
for the right use and improvement of which 
He will hold you strictly accountable. Bury 
it not in the earth. Remember the doom of 
the unfaithful servant, and be wise. The 
hours, the days, the months, the years glide 
noiselessly but rapidly away. The New 
Year comes and goes, and is quickly suc- 
ceeded by another. The season of youth, 
the spring-time and the seed-time of life, will 
soon (ah, how soon !) with you be gone for- 
ever. When a few more rolling years shall 
have sped their flight, the vigor of manhood 
will nerve your muscles, and the duties of 
manhood will call you away to far other 
scenes and pursuits than those which now 
engage your attention. While, then, in the 
kind providence of God, the opportunity is 
given you, break up the fallow ground of 
your heart, and cast in abundantly the seeds 
of knowledge and goodness. You shall 



LETTERS TO SCHOOL-CHILDREN. 135 

gather the harvest in the summer of man- 
hood, and enjoy its fruits not only during the 
winter of age, but even beyond the river of 
death, when this corruption shall have put 
on incorruption, when this mortal shall have 
put on immortality, and death itself shall be 
swallowed up in victory. 
























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